Out of the Ground – Sculpture Show at Inverness Botanical Gardens
Coming shortly from Monday 25th August is a visually stimulating show of sculptures all made from materials that are found in nature and as such are ‘out of the ground’. Ranging from large branches or limbs of trees to such common place plants as plantain (in total from four different trees and a further 5-6 plants), and also kelp although not strictly a plant. Artist Nigel Goldie has produced a range of sculptures that are at times immersive, puzzling and challenging of conventional views of these materials from’ out of the ground’. The larger and more robust sculptures are already in the grounds of the gardens, with the further varied and fragile sculptures will be in the new large glasshouse from the 25th of August. These will be open to the public during the garden opening times of 9.30 am to 4.00 throughout the week
Further information from www.nigelgoldie.com
Fallen
While project managing the construction of an art studio at Glencanisp Lodge using timber felled for this purpose, my attention was drawn to larch tree trunk with defined curvature. The view was that this was of little use for building purposes and I asked that it be milled into a planks for potential alternative uses (for example benches). After sometime, the idea of interlocking the 3M long 5cm thick planks to make a sculpture emerged and this was what I arrived at. Working on my own with limited means of lifting meant working within the limits of what I could achieve. The title comes from a reflection on the widespread devastation of wood land at Glencanisp from windblown trees becoming entangled with one another.
‘Burnt Offering‘ has experienced a number iterations in its life. Started from a whole tree trunk and chain sawn to change its form and open it up, Subsequently carved with hand tools to refine the shape and overall appearance. It stood for a long time unfinished and then while having a fire to burn waste wood, I added this to embers in order to char its exterior surface. This went further than intended but it emerged intact and for some time was outside on display, until strong winds led to it falling over and a section breaking off. However, I have chosen to display this as having some merit in its residual form and the evident breaks that are occuring.
Exploring space and form (kelp) 1This is one of a series of small sculptures made from dried kelp. One feature of these and other small sculptures on display is that while created as single pieces, combining them with one another can open up a further dimension to what is ‘going on’ within what has become a new sculpture. It is unfortunate that in an exhibition such as this, it is not possible to encourage the viewer to literally play with these small creations and explore the varying forms and experiences thereby made possible.
This is a temporary image to be replaced shortly
Trump Tower of nothingness
This is one of several works constructed entirely with stems of goldenrod by a combining by doweling or jointing together . Previously I have made similar boxes that were suspended with small kelp sculptures ‘falling’ within them and displayed as part of the Isle Martin seaweed festival in 2022.
I was tempted to call these ‘Boxes of nothingness’ and display them separately suspended in the air. The practical issues of doing this in the glasshouse led me to think of an alternative. This is also part of my interest in exploring form and space within this show.
The idea to make an open boxes with the thinnest of materials, developed from an earlier much larger tower made from 1M cubes of rylock fencing wire. The idea for this was inspired from working with archaeologists restoring Clachtoll broch in 2012. This reached a height of 6M and stayed upright for almost three weeks before strong winds caused its demise.
How long this will remain erect remains to be seen and this attempt to define and ‘enclose’ negative space may well be a futile endeavour. The big challenge here is the heat inside the building and consequent drying out and loosening of the joints.
The title ‘Form from a Fencing Post‘ gives a clue to its origins for still protuding from the wood are two ‘ancient’ nails, indicating that the original tree had served as a fencing post long enough ago for all signs of these nails to be covered by the bark. Not sure of the history of this log, as passed on my a friend who had acquired it from someone else. Arguably this is still an unfinished work, but I have chosen to show this as I like this emergent quality of potential without final definition and the evident natural features and those of human intervention in the past.
Exploring space and form 1 is one of several small sculptures on display that have developed over time, as I have experimented with different stalks/petioles of different trees and plants. Ideally the viewer should directly explore these sculptures that open up forms of negative space created by the sculpture, by changing the position and how these can generally stand in several different ways. But within the limitations of show such as this with no supervision and also the inherent vulnerability of the work, this is not possible.
This shows ‘Leylandii limbs‘ on display in the ‘growing area’ at the Botanical Gardens. This is a work that benefits from interacting with its environment and also from being suspended and thereby can be viewed from all directions. Like many other sculptures on show its inherent and varied meanings can be manipulated by changing how it is arranged. In this instance in the Botanic Gardens it is secured in a fixed arrangement.
The original plan was to have, what I keep calling a ‘frieze’ to divide the space used for this show from the other half. That way it could more directly contribute to the theme of space and form all be it visually in a one dimensional manner.
‘Barking mad‘ is the title for this attempt to reconstruct sections of bark that came from an eucalyptus tree in a friend’s garden. This was transported to Assynt over ten years ago and been suspended since then in my studio. Doing this show at IBG has provided the incentive to explore what might be possible. For the only time in this show, I have had recourse to use bought planed timber to create a frame, around which to support and bring the pieces together. One length of the bark had to be reduced to make transporting it possible. The idea to attempt this piece was inspired by David Nash whose amazing range of timber sculpture, from whole and parts of trees, has greatly influenced me.
‘Twogether‘ is another of my large timber sculptures that reflect initial use of a chain saw to reduce the length of a fallen branch of a scots pine, thereby creating two almost matched halves. Subsequently gouges and chisels were used to create differences of shape reflecting and extentuating its natural form, while also making interventions to make it much more than an ‘interesting’ piece of timber. The two halves have been suspended on swivels so that they can rotate in ‘harmony’ or ‘discord’ according to the wind, but this requires a safe and suitable means of doing this. Consequently will not allowed to be hanging free in ‘Out of the Ground’ and these have been suspended in a fixed way and tempting to rename this as ‘tree huggers’.
‘Plantains in a row‘ is an arrangement of plantain stalks and there are others on show. These very erect (and sometimes twisted) jet black stalks take on another meaning when brought together and displayed as oppposed to being seen as spreaders within borders, paths and all the places they are generally not welcomed. This is about how plants are seen and also the potential for those that are ‘invisible’ to be brought into view. While having a certain strength, these are very brittle and can be easily crushed hence challenging to work with, and most likely have limited potential as an arts material.
Sculpture provides the opportunity for adults to play at how to construct objects from a wide range of materials. ‘Conkers in space’ reflects my habit of still collecting conkers every autumn enjoying having some on display and then ending up in a box. So many of these used in this sculpture are many years old yet still shiny and hard. I would have liked to have suspended this and am still hoping once setting up in the large glasshouse that this might be possible. This is also exploring my interest in space and form.
This is a detail of the hanging kelp provided as a context to showing the small kelp sculptures. Kelp is a remarkable ‘plant’ that grow profusely along much of the coastline of Scotland and especially the North West. It has much historical significance with crofting and more recently there are proposals to farm and harvest it for the numerous by products that can be made from it. It can be seen as undesirable from a tourist point of view but when dried, it reduces and shrivels to become hard and an interesting (if challenging) material to create sculptures with. One issue being the way it continues to respond to changing climate conditions and become floppy and changes its form.
I have a long association with ‘stick people’ and year’s ago as a lecturer draw them frequently when referring to social and human behaviour. I find power in the minimalism of a few lines, or the combining of 3-4 stalks of goldenrod to represent human action/movement. Here to depict the condition of the thousands with ‘nothing left’ be it in Gaza, Sudan and many other places experiencing human made or climate disasters