Edward Allington
Richard Deacon
Antony Gormley
Anish Kapoor
Margaret Organ
Peter Randall-Page
Jean-Luc Vilmouth
Bill Woodrow

OBJECTS & SCULPTURE

'I don't think one can dissociate oneself from previous making experiences; I was at one time working in ceramics, working with what were essentially self-referential objects, a pot or a vase for instance. Objects like these have certain laws, an internal logic if you like, a cup is a cup, whatever endless variations might be manufactured, there is always a basic concept of a cup which survives. I think this way of looking at things relates strongly to the present work where the pieces are very much self contained units, in the same way as a cup is self contained.'

'I don't feel I've been involved in any sort of reductive or abstracting process. The pieces are based rather on the platonic idea of there being another world of perfect forms or ideas, archetypal shapes. They're definitely not about distilling from other forms or abstracting from nature. They are rather my making a version of something that exists in my mind as a standard form, very simple things.'

'I started off by being particularly obsessed about a certain shape like the sphere and I had to make that shape. After making that shape another shape would take priority. This is how the Ideal Standard Forms piece evolved. It isn't a composition - I think more a set or collection, like a set of cards. They are 9 autonomous shapes, which can be moved about into different positions without really changing the piece. They're in a regular format to eliminate any 'competition' between forms. Having moved from one shape to the next I had them all on the studio floor and they began to make sense as a set of shapes, that were ideal versions of forms I've been concerned with for a long time.'

'The intrinsic quality of plaster is very important to me -I'm interested in the fact that it's valueless, that it's fragile and so inert - it's quite dumb it has no major association and virtually no kind of beauty of surface. Unlike metal for example, which can be intrinsically very beautiful - and often valuable; there is also a certain ritual involved in using it - similarly with stone or wood. Traditionally, though, plaster is usually used as an intermediate stage for making maquettes, or creating forms or moulds for sculpture made in other materials. I just really like plaster. It also allows a way of working which I find appropriate for me – the Ideal Standard Forms were daubed over a paper or clay core – smeared and daubed together not carved. Although they were trimmed afterwards the actual forming of them was very crude, very messy. In this way there’s a gap between the perfect concept and the way I make it, which is me and which means they can keep changing – I like the concept of a sphere or a box but I can keep re-making it. I suppose in this way of working I’m also using a very traditional approach – that of modeling; not engaging particularly in a dialogue with the material or in revealing some inherent quality of it – I’m organisng  it or ‘controlling’ it very much.’

‘I don’t see the work as being allegorical in any way, and don’t wish it to relate to anything outside itself. It could not really exist outside the studio or a very concisely defined space like a gallery, where I can control it. The whole point now, is to have as little extra information interfering with the work as possible.’