Carving Log

I've been wanting to try my hand at carving for quite some time so I asked Russel where I might be able to find a nice log to carve and he mentioned that there were a few trees past the Botanic Gardens which had recently been felled. So that's where I found this wondeful log.

I thought it would just be a great chance to get used to using the tools and learning what kind of patterns could be made with them so that I would then be able to apply this to my practice if ever the situation arose.

Public Art Project

Site Visits (23.02.10)

Having been making visits back and forth from site for the past couple of weeks, taking and checking various measurements, I finally managed to get the stile installed on the morning of the site visits.


A few adjustments had to be made, such as carving away a few indents so that the main posts would fit around protruding parts where the lock and chain were but apart from that it fitted rather neatly over the top of the gate.


I attached a small wooden box over the 'horns' at the top of both gates to prevent anyone from injuring themselves but also to function as a little something to hold on to as you are climbing over.



It also seems to function rather well as a table to eat your fish and chips on!


Having managed to put to tighten the last bolt as people arrived I was very much aware that I should really have installed it the day before to allow myself time to go and see other people's work - I sincerely hope that people did not think that I was not interested in their work and I do feel annoyed that I didn't get to see some of the other one off pieces to discuss later in the crit.

Public Art Project: Making Stile

Old photos of Bagatelle

Sculpture for Exhibition at Clay pipe factory

Bagatelle: Stage Two

Sculpture for Exhibition at Clay pipe factory

Bagatelle: Stage one

Trip to Sharmanka Studios (01.02.09)

Russian Kinetic Sculpture Studios - 64 Osborne Street, Glasgow

SHARMANKA (Russian for hurdy-gurdy) was founded by sculptor-mechanic Eduard Bersudsky and theatre director Tatyana Jakovskaya in St.Petersburg (Russia) in 1989. Audiences in many countries have been fascinated by its magic, and based in Glasgow since 1996 it has gained a reputation as one of the city’s hidden treasures.

In 1961 it was the time of the Khrushchev "thaw". People started to write and paint in private without joining the official Union of Soviet Artists and Writers. An 'underground' culture spread through people's flats , too widely dispersed for the KGB to control. In 1975 thousands of people queued for hours to get into an exhibition put on at Constantine Kuzminsky's flat.

A few days after closing, all participants were called to the City Department of Culture and told that nothing like that would be tolerated again and many of his friends were forced to leave the country, were arrested or just disappeared altogether. Eduard didn't actively oppose the regime. Like countless others he chose to resist passively. He was one of those known as 'internal emigrants' who left the Soviet Union Psychologically though not physically.

Self Portrait and monkey

"In the belfry of the millennium clock there was going to be the sort of traditional figures associated with mechanical clocks - figures that reflected the life cycle from birth to death. But then it came clear that something else should be remembered from this millennium, the millions imprisoned, murdered, maimed and vanished. Finally we named it Requiem..." Tatyana Jakovskaya (Eduard Bersudsky's wife)

Millenium Clock Tower

Words don't sit easily on Eduard Bersudsky's works:

"they are re-awakenings of old, half-forgotten myths. They spring from the collective memory of us all. When we see Eduard's work we recognise it; it's as though it's always been. This is the hallmark of great art - the rediscovery of what's lasting." - Julian Spalding

Portrait of Eduard Bersudsky