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Wood Art Collaboration Carlow, Ireland

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Mark Sanger:
Hi all

I recently spent time in Ireland on a Wood Art Collaboration for the making and installation  of 'Improvisation on the theme of an Irish Wall' for  Visual Gallery Carlow with the collaboration being funded by the Carlow Arts Festival Eigse , cinematographers and Chinese Carving master together with his wife attending with the support of the IWCS ' International Wood Culture Society

The project involved researching, problem solving and making a dry stone wall from wood to reflect our interpretation of the subject, to include individual works from each maker, from carvings, lighting visual displays (in the form of a hologram included by one maker that illuminated within the wall as you walked past), to colouring texturing to produce a transition from stone to wood and back, reflecting the history and to push the boundaries of wood art within a more contemporary setting. All items included in the wall were made from wood with the only other inclusions other than the hologram being paints, texturing and fixing hardware to make the wall safe for public viewing.

The project was co-ordinated and arrange by Terry Martin of Australia and Cornelia McCarthy    Ireland and held at the premises of  Glen Lucas . Many international artists being invited it was a great experience, chance to learn and share and to be part of such an installation.

My invitation came last October via an email and the rest is history.

There will soon be a video link to the IWCS web site where a video of the event and our working will be available to view. The IWCS provided two professional cinematographers who attended  from Taiwan to document the event, I have seen the video, it is amazing and really shows the community spirit,wonderful time we had and the end result of many many long hours of work put in by all,  far better than I can describe here.

The IWCS web site and the other links here are of interest to us woodies. 

I will be posting a blog entry of the event as it was certainly an eye opener for me to be involved in such a project and it may be of interest for others and wood slowly makes the transition from craft to an art form and more importantly is slowly being accepted by such galleries, something that is highlighted during the interviews within the video.

Links to the websites of some of those makers that took part have been added to my web site here and it is worth looking at the variety of ways in which people work with wood. Very inspirational and it was a privilege to share and learn with all.

Being invited as a woodturner was interesting as I actually spent the week carving and was privileged to receive one - one time as were many others with 'Wood Carving Master Xiang Dong Wang' from China who uses the most simple of carving tools to produce his work.

A few pics I have included below. While there is little woodturning there were some turned items included, the links are well worth looking at and the way in which woodturning, furniture making, carving, sculpting crossed over into the final result shows one transition I believe woodturning will move more into in the future as a part process.

A few samples of the many stones produced from wood.





The storyboard we all added ideas to initially for us to dip into for reference.


Master Xiang Dong Wang starting his carving


to this


then this



and finally with another head stone carving he produced. to this.



Component turned parts produced by Neil Turnerfor the hinges of this piece,


coloured by Jacques Vesery

who was more than willing to pass on his colouring techniques and skills, this being one of the major parts of the event that everyone helped and shared throughout.

 


The wall installed in the gallery for the opening at Visual



 
pic courtesy of Liam Flynn

Pic Courtesy of Liam Flynn



There are many many other carvings, objects and parts to this story for the building of this wall, hard work, late nights working ( and trying out the local watering hole to watch traditional Irish musicians) and the story behind it with over 500 photos I will hopefully get some on my blog.

Such as this skull carved by one of the makers from a found frog skeleton


from a field trip we took on the first day with a local historian for our guide. This enables us to research and learn about the history of dry stone walls, the local environment, people, flora and fauna, etc etc, with the whole process of building the wall being holistic from the ground up so to speak and shows an interesting part of the creative process.





Thanks for looking.

bodrighywood:
What a fascinating idea and a great opportunity to collaborate with other skills. Some very clever and talented crafts people judging bu the results. Am I allowed to say 'Lucky sod' LOL. The sort of thing I would love to be involved in. Maybe one day I expect to see some of the Chinese style carving appearing in your work in the near future.

Pete

Martin Lawrence:

  Cowans using wood, well what next.

   Bet you had a great time and I love the result.

Cheers Martin

David Buskell:
HI Mark,

That was a great opportunity for you. Love the final results.

Do post a link to the video if it is available.

David

Mark Sanger:
Hi all

Thanks for your interest. It may be some time before I produce a detailed blog entry as I have a lot of work to catch up on. But this video as said does it far better than I could. Just received the permission to post it.

Produced by IWCS with their thanks. http://youtu.be/LK5n41PvbCw

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