Two Ships Two Trees – Julian Wootton

26 October  – 2  November    
10am – 6pm

Private View: 25 October    
For invitations please contact hocking.reid@gmail.com

The themes of Julian’s work derive from the sense of impermanence and instability many of us now feel. As we once constructed grand edifices expressing the certainty of our cultural beliefs, temples, churches, vast factories and grand parliament buildings, Julian’s sculptures express ambiguity, uncertainty, even the foreboding that underly our lives.

His influences from the art world are Surrealism and the work of Max Ernst. In particular the strange, wholly unorthodox work defined by Bernard Dubuffet, the French artist and critic, as Art Brut. Without the imaginative inventions of these geniuses Julian says it would never have occurred to him to have made art out of rotten wood. With his background in archaeology and using myth and legends from antiquity, Julian’s edifices are sculptural canvases for the narratives of now. Constructed from fired clay, paper mâché, rotten wood, found plastic, sacking, string and metals, his work is muscular and yet holds the vulnerability of our presence in this threatened world.

Julian’s freedom and eclectic use of materials, deeply influenced by Art Brut or Raw Art, is parallel to the wide-ranging   use of cultural myth, legend.

The work that I am producing is made from a variety of different  materials and combinations of different materials. The majority of pieces are made from fired clay. Of those the greater part now are painted , after firing just once , with acrylics. A few are glazed with bright earthen ware colours and some finished with metal oxides fired on to the surface of the clay. The finishes used depend upon the effects that I want to achieve. With acrylic it is possible to achieve quite strident effects , with glazes at just over 1000 C  much softer more muted effects than with acrylic. With metallic  oxides much harsher effects are possible.

As well as works with fired clay I also work with papier-mache  which I’ve found as no doubt many others have too to be an extraordinary versatile and expressive material.

In  addition to fired clay and  papier-mache I also use decayed wood and wood treated in various ways, metals in various forms added sometimes in the course of making , or after , plastic,[ entire forms or I fragments] , sacking and other cloths, string, and various adhesives and manufactured materials.

The themes derive from the sense that many of us now feel of impermanence of ambiguity and perhaps the sense that all of have of the instability of most human culture . I’m also always amazed how us humans invent /create belief systems/values which then become dominated by them and in my view can be expressed in churches / temples, industrial systems, political believes, and so on. So I think that what I’ve made  expresses some of this, I hope,  and using in part myths and  legends from antiquity.

The freedom with which I feel able to select materials derives from encountering  .Art Brut or Raw ART without which it would never have occurred to me to use rotten wood as a supremely expressive material to make art with.

The work that I am producing is made from a variety of different  materials and combinations of different materials. The majority of pieces are made from fired clay. Of those the greater part now are painted , after firing just once , with acrylics. A few are glazed with bright earthen ware colours and some finished with metal oxides fired on to the surface of the clay. The finishes used depend upon the effects that I want to achieve. With acrylic it is possible to achieve quite strident effects , with glazes at just over 1000 C  much softer more muted effects than with acrylic. With metallic  oxides much harsher effects are possible.

As well as works with fired clay I also work with papier-mache  which I’ve found as no doubt many others have too to be an extraordinary versatile and expressive material.

In  addition to fired clay and  papier-mache I also use decayed wood and wood treated in various ways, metals in various forms added sometimes in the course of making , or after , plastic,[ entire forms or I fragments] , sacking and other cloths, string, and various adhesives and manufactured materials.

The themes derive from the sense that many of us now feel of impermanence of ambiguity and perhaps the sense that all of have of the instability of most human culture . I’m also always amazed how us humans invent /create belief systems/values which then become dominated by them and in my view can be expressed in churches / temples, industrial systems, political believes, and so on. So I think that what I’ve made  expresses some of this, I hope,  and using in part myths and  legends from antiquity.

The freedom with which I feel able to select materials derives from encountering  .Art Brut or Raw ART without which it would never have occurred to me to use rotten wood as a supremely expressive material to make art with.

jsculpt@dialstart.net