Untitled Document

To create a piece of sculpture that makes manifest one's experiences of York Minster is a challenge not easily met. The Minster stands upon layer after layer of past time and context: conflict and triumph, destruction and resurrection, and its ultimate expression of the sublime is built upon foundations (tellingly revealed when the Minster was excavated in the 1960's) of cultures and societies that have struggled towards and attained greatness over long ages of history/prehistory. This long reach into the past is absorbed into its very fabric: Ice Age geology beneath the Roman undercroft, a Viking ship's prow protruding into the ceiling of the nave. I have carved a small boat that I am hoping will look as if it has been excavated from deep beneath the undercroft: crushed, misshapen, but hardened into stone and enduring. The other two sculptures are trying to convey very much the same message: ancient times, ancient symbols, attempts at transcendance.