antmanbee: Anthony Felton Photo Diary: David Nash, 18,000 Tides, 1996
antmanbee anthony felton photo diary
David Nash, 18,000 Tides, 1996  (Artworks)Thursday April 12th (2012)
Thursday April 12th (2012) David Nash, 18,000 Tides, 1996 width=
'David Nash was invited to the Towner Art Gallery in October 1993 with a view to developing a proposal for a new outdoor sculpture near the Gallery in Manor Gardens. Whilst in Eastbourne he was given a tour to see what wood might be available. As the only durable wood for exterior sculpture is oak, he was shown oak trees that were damaged and due to be cut down, and the groynes at Eastbourne seafront which were to be replaced. He responded strongly to the weathered groynes which were to be discarded, as the wood is too hard and full of shingle to be recycled and too dangerous for fire wood because the shingle explodes. Following his visit to Eastbourne, David Nash sent a proposal to site a sculpture in Manor Gardens. ''Working from the proportions of these (seafront) oak buttresses, I envisaged a group standing vertically in a circle, creating a 'place', unusual and intriguing as an image and as a place to enter, majestic and quiet and contemplative.'' …It is the first time that Nash has worked with sea weathered timber.' Nash worked with the Brighton sculptor, Walter Bailey in preparing the timber for the sculpture and the retaining wall. Bailey has assisted Nash over several years. The upright groynes have been placed in concrete 'pipes'. 1.5m below ground level, to hold them in place underneath the shingle. Nash says, ''The timbers in this sculpture have been formed by the relentless breathing of tides, the sea pressing against Eastbourne over twenty-five years, eighteen thousand breaths. The living oak, before being a buttress, wove the elements of mineral, water, air and light to form its physical body; when no longer a tree the wood retains an echo of those elemental forces and through water erosion their image is magnified, each buttress becoming unique. I have chosen ten images to place together working with proportion and number framed by a low wall to create a space that is uniquely of Eastbourne and is aesthetically and socially approachable on many levels, from the mysteries of 'number' - single, pair, trilogy, quartet, - to using the wall as a seat''.   Send a comment