Urban Palimpsest
These abstract pieces are sculptures informed by art, architecture and industrial archaeology. All work over the past two decades has centred on an exploration of the contemporary urban landscape and its relationship with nature.
The inspiration for this work begins from exploring the city centre or the local environs of my native Leeds. I see the artistic potential of the shape of a bridge or underpass. Brutalist architecture is one of my reference points.
I like the abstract nature of urban structures, but also of objects that have been left, discarded, abandoned. I like the idea that they had a former use and now that function has changed over the passage of time.
This collection of work was inspired by the discovery of a rusting old car part – a wheel arch in fact – that I found abandoned by a road. I was attracted by its sweeping curves and sculptural form. I built on the idea, literally, with slabs of the white earthstone Ashraf Hanna clay, strong and very forgiving with minimal warpage and shrinkage. A whole series was born from that chance discovery.
‘It’s the context. When a tree falls down in the street, suddenly it’s a massive thing. Yet you have walked past it every day and have never really seen it, because you get used to it. You can take something and just do very little to it, and it completely changes everything. I’m always on the lookout for things like that. As an artist, there’s a concrete visual language that exists for me, which is sometimes universal. I feel I can communicate with that more than with anything else.’
Damien Hirst
