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Planetary bodies at Molebutton 1 |
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Simon Cooley - sculptor
project funding 2006
My route into sculpture was unorthodox.I left school at 15 and through much good fortune, came to work as an apprentice for sculptors Bernard Saunders, Edwin Russell and Lorne McKean. When I was 40, I decided to see what formal education could offer me, and I went to St Martins School of Art to do a BA in Sculpture. An interesting but questionable exercise.
I began working life using stone and clay but being drawn to working with metal, I bought my first forge in the mid-eighties and since then, the forging of metal has become a primary medium of mine.I now work in both stone and metal, combining the two.
the Piano Music Series
I was granted an award from the Juliet Gomperts Trustin 2006 towards the development of the Piano Music Series, in particular the purchase of metal and stone.
This work has developed through a specific process of drawing whilst listening to particular pieces of music (G I Gurdjieff/Thomas de Hartmann, written in the 1920). I make a precise measurement of the drawings, which are then translated into sculptures of forged steel/iron and carved stone.
The process I follow is a specific practice in which the aim is to maintain a level of divided attention, wherein as the emerging sound is heard, so a line is simultaneously drawn.The drawing is happening in the moment of listening and it is spontaneous, free of planning.
My interest is in what occurs during this process, and particularly how I find an innate and unplanned balance of lengths, visual weights and proportions in the drawings which relate to the organisation of the music through its tempo, pitch, duration, and most importantly, feeling. This all happens in split seconds.
