Private View Monday 19th October, 6-8pm Exhibition runs from 19th-23rd October. Open Mon-Fri, 4-6pm
The GALLERY @ Wrenn is delighted to present an exhibition of work by ex Wrenn student Freddy Blackman.
“My work derives from a deep fascination with all things to do with the urban environment and construction. It goes without saying these two things are commonly seen working along side each other with the constant stream of new constructions being erected in urban environments all over the world. I enjoy walking round these different urban environments breaking down various complex architecture and constructions into basic geometric shapes. From the resulting photos these basic shapes are very precisely and geometrically scaled up to a pre-determined size and turned into a three dimensional sculpture. With this thoroughly enjoyable and geometric process in mind, a bit like that which an architect goes through when designing a building but on a much smaller scale, I feel my work celebrates architecture but at the same time strips architecture down to the bareness of simple geometric shapes with no practical function. Coupled with the almost comedic flatness of some of my sculptures my work can also be seen as a rejection of architecture. I try to blur the boundaries between architecture, geometry and Art.
By keeping my sculptures pretty bare and simple the viewer’s imagination is free to take a life of it’s own. I do not limit myself to just incorporating the basic geometric shapes which I find fascinating in an urban environment, but try to also translate mine and other peoples differing experiences of, or behaviour in, the urban environment. There is a playful feel to my sculptures that sort of look like if they were not sculptures they could well be part of a playground - the notion that an urban environment is like a big playground. By temporarily dividing the gallery up into separate areas I am also playing around with the notion of site-specificity. The sculptures that lie within the areas are designed solely for that space and to put the sculpture somewhere different would completely change the viewers experience of the sculpture.
The materials I choose for my sculptures derive from the basis they can easily be seen to transcend from an urban environment. If they are not found or been discarded by some one in the city they can easily be obtained from D.I.Y stores or builders merchants. The materials are often untreated which gives them a raw quality something that can be seen in a lot of the “Minimal Art” that arose in America most prominently in the 1960’s and was applied to artists such as Donald Judd, Robert Morris and Sol LeWitt. Their work, where all subjectivism was eradicated leaving an abstract-geometric art of cool elegance, has recently been a great source of inspiration for my own work.”
“simplicity of form is not necessarily simplicity of experience” (Robert Morris)
Frederick Blackman
You are invited to attend an open evening on Monday 19th October between 6-8pm. The exhibition runs until the 23rd October and is open Monday to Friday, 4-6pm
