julian rowe
julian rowe
visual artist
visual artist
...alauda
When I was asked to make a piece of work for the courtyard of Charing Library, I took a walk on a spring morning along the Pilgrim’s
Way. I already knew that the piece ought to be predominantly vertical, because it would only be viewed from inside the building through
the vertical bars of the foyer, but that was as far as my ideas had got. I had not long set out on the path from Eastwell when I heard
a skylark, the first one of the year, and immediately it set me thinking about the spiral flight of the little bird and its accompanying
song as it soared out of view. There was something about this image that matched the sense of aspiration and optimism and infinite
possibility that the library represented. The form of the sculpture was more or less decided at that moment.
The repetitious use of
identical components is a characteristic of all my work – I am intrigued by the way that complexity can emerge from repeating very
simple forms. In this instance I have built up a column by stacking a mixture of left and right handed spiral castings of identical
design. These are made of resin filled with powdered iron which with time and weather will rust naturally. Like most of my work they
have an industrial feel and have deliberately been kept with a rough finish. The whole process of casting is reminiscent of manufacturing
processes of the past and I use it to create the kind of objects that look as though they might have been dug out of the ground or
found rusting in derelict yards. There is an odd fascination in the possibility of wrenching such heavy brute matter into the image
of lightness and flight that was my starting point.
The siting only allows the piece to be seen properly from a fixed viewpoint framed
by the window. I have exploited this limitation by making the column disappear out of sight in both directions – upwards above the
top of the window, and downwards into a reflection in water. Thus the spiral appears to be infinite. There is an “ideal” viewing position
in the foyer, in which the column and its little reservoir of water exactly fit the frame formed by the centre window pane.
And the
title? – Alauda is the Latin for lark, but I think it also sounds like a hymn of praise.
Alauda. 2004. Resin cast iron, water
