October | 2011 | LustreBox

Sketcher of the dome

Details from David Nash’s Red, Black, Other exhibition at Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, October 2011.

David Nash: Red, Black, Other

Embedded Crack and Warp Column (2011), Eucalyptus

Embedded Crack and Warp Column (2011) is a fine example of how he has carved wood in such a way as to allow it to crack and warp when drying – an inherently uncontrollable process which completes the piece

Waving Block (2011), Eucalyptus

Red Dome (2006), Yew

Some of the works, such as Red Dome (2006) are made up of assemblages of roughly carved elements, which often vary in response to where they are shown

Red Sheaves (2008)

Red Flash (2003), Yew

…carved and cut into in such a way as to accentuate the unique and peculiar growing properties that wood has and result in sculptures, such as Red Flash (2003), that have a fascinating character all of their own

Redwood Cut Ups (2011), Redwood

…cutting grooves in wood as finely as possible with a chainsaw – with a unique understanding of the scale and heft of the material

Blue Ring (1992), Pastel on canvas and bluebell seeds

Blue Ring (1992) was made by moving locally found bluebell bulbs and planting them in a ring 30 metres in diameter and, over the course of several seasons the blue ring would appear and disappear in time. This work is represented here as a ring of bluebell seeds shown in a loose circle below an intense blue ring on canvas.

Husk (2009), Charred oak

Husk (2009) refers back to Village Husk (1987), a drawing by Nash which he made after seeing images of a village in the Middle East destroyed ‘in a retaliatory act of war’ in 1987, and which he perceived as being like husks of human life

Torso (2009), Charred oak

Millennium Book (2000), Charred beech and rusted steel

Millennium Book (2000) was made at the end of the twentieth century, which Nash felt had been doom-laden, its title possibly referring to wisdom, accrued and possibly lost by us as a species in that time