Stones, Sunlight & Shadows: New Sculpture in the Woods

This summer Peter Randall-Page is exhibiting a body of new work at Roche Court.
A group of granite sculptures will be sited in the landscaped and wooded area of the sculpture park, where a mix of trees and wild flowers provides a setting of dappled sunlight and shadows.

His works for Roche Court have developed out of the artist’s interest in organic form and growth patterns in nature over the past 25 years. Randall-Page has long been fascinated by the relationship between geometry and biology, and in recent years he has become concerned with the underlying principles determining growth and the forms it produces.

In this body of work Randall-Page explores the dynamic tension between order and randomness. His earlier carved stone works transformed hard stone into apparently living, organic shapes and forms, however his new works evolve from the original form of the stone. Working with naturally eroded glacial granite boulders, the entire surface is carved with geometrical patterns which adapt to the natural contours and facets of the stone. In his words:

“the geometry on which the low relief pattern is based is found in many natural structures – it packs things together with optimum efficiency – nature loves economy.”

His most significant commission to date is an enormous granite sculpture, Seed, for the Educational Resource Centre (The Core) at the Eden Project in Cornwall, which was installed last year.

Born in 1954, Peter Randall-Page studied sculpture at Bath Academy of Art from 1973-77. In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Plymouth and from 2002-2005 was an Associate Research Fellow at Dartington College of Arts. He has exhibited widely, including one-man shows at Leeds City Art Gallery / Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1992, and the Natural History Museum, London in 2003. Recent commissions include Give and Take in Newcastle, which won the 2006 Marsh Award for Public Sculpture; and Mind's Eye, a large ceramic wall-mounted piece for the Department of Psychology at Cardiff University (2006). Peter Randall-Page is represented in numerous private and public collections throughout the world, including Tate and the British Museum.

New Art Centre
Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 1BG
Tel: 01980 862244 email:[email protected]

www.sculpture.uk.com