Monday 20 December 2010

All At Sea

This piece was exhibited in the exhibition 'The Cutting Edge' - Sculpture 1977 - 87 that opened in Bolton Museum & Art Gallery on 11th April 1987 and subsequently toured to the Usher Gallery, Lincoln and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. It is in the collection of Lady Patricia Gibberd, an early supporter of Mason's work following the commission by her husband , Sir Frederick Gibberd, for Harlow New Town.

The piece utilises a fragment of Carrara Marble, a frequent decision to exploit the naturally occurring shape of the material within which a dynamic formal construction emerges. Like many works from this period the forms are in part determined by the internal relationships between them with just the suggestion of externally arrived at characteristics. This ambiguity of form and subsequent meaning is often found in much of work of the artist. Equally evident is the delight in the interplay between the surface finishes, the rough chisel marked with that of the flat polished. It is also an early example of the occasional introduction of other material, paint and lead, that crops up sporadically in work over the years. The sculpture is approximately 14" high.