Our featured artist this week is David Bickley.
The Invisible House
"The invisible house cannot be seen, but it is not hidden.
Through tiny, obscure facets of the mind prism —
That same prism that comes in two parts, and that Escher knew,
As did the German priest who wrote him of it.
From an island in a Lake in the rain,
And through midnight lauda-numbed talk of galvanism
And of statues that lay asleep, deep in the marble coffin blocks of Canova.
Or at Lissadell, again in rain,
North western, cold and dark, with the golden flames, pushing, push-pushing against the night.
And that 'wyrd' night that lay all about — just a fabric tear in the static electricity of sleep."
music by David Bickley & Declan Young
TALUS
"A recent abstract work. This and others in the series were inspired by reading “The Alfred Wallis Factor” and general research into the St. Ives arts colony and the birth of abstraction in the area known as West Penwith (a place where a lot of my own work has been conceived and created).
The creative / technical process to make these works was extremely arcane & complex and each new incarnation of this style is part of journey of discovery / rediscovery to help build a new calligraphy of process."
KILN
"This project started with a fascination of historic lime kilns, and has become a study of the mythic potential of object as narrative. Lime kilns were once common features of rural landscapes throughout Ireland, and almost every village could boast of at least one. These kilns are structures in which limestone was heated to a high temperature to produce burnt lime, used primarily on agricultural land to ‘sweeten’ the grass. The construction of the kiln necessitated an opening in the front of a huge wall of cut stone, these openings could be simple square designs, like a fireplace, or more ornate versions with beautiful receding archways. To me these enigmatic monuments seem like portals, doorways into anther world, and because they are thresholds, they are clear examples of dynamic liminal spaces. The cyclic process of limestone being taken out of the Earth then transformed with fire before being returned to the land, to me represents an alchemical process. Also, in small communities, the kilns were often communally owned and operated, and this “ring” of society, thus aligned to the “alchemical circuit”, represents the concept behind this work."
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