DAVID NASH: SCULPTURE THROUGH THE SEASONS
National Museum Cardiff, Fri 3 May-Sun 1 Sept
David Nash is an artist internationally renowned for his dramatic wood sculptures. The artist, who lives and works in Capel Rhiw (a former Methodist chapel in Blaenau Ffestinog), has works dating from the late 1960s to the present day. Nowadays a member of the Royal Academy and a longstanding member of Britain’s art scene, his first solo exhibitions were way back in 1973 in York and Bangor in North Wales, with that decade and it’s premonitions of environmental doom proving crucial to Nash’s work.
There are two recurrent modes of work for Nash; connecting with the outside world, where his pieces are placed into the landscape itself, and pieces which are presented indoors in relation to their architectural environments, as if entwining with space around them. His exhibition marks the fiftieth anniversary of the artist and his work. This recent exhibition includes a photography collection of David Nash’s Ash Dome. This piece was created in 1977 by planting a circle of trees near his home – the piece is still live, in a way, as the trees continue to grow, curving and following the seasons, with Nash ‘training’ them to grow in a circular, spiral-type vortex. David Nash’s creative style gives his work a sensory feel to it; you almost want to reach out and touch it, particularly as its firmly rooted in a fascination with the natural world; working in his youth with the Commercial Forestry Group he became smitten with trees. Much of his work stays within the natural landscape once he’s finished with it, giving a sense of permanence to his art. Yet there’s also something relatable about Nash’s work; it doesn’t desire explanations, but instead requires a physical experience, an essential part of its appeal.
The exhibition will be in Cardiff for four months before moving on to Eastbourne and is supported by both Colwinston Charitable Trust and Henry Moore Foundation. Sculpture Through the Seasons is set to be intriguing, exciting and sensory, a one of-a-kind experience. With access to works of art spanning David Nash’s career and demonstrating the beauty of nature, this is well worth a trip to the national museum.
Admission: free. Info: 0300 1112333 / www.museum.wales/cardiff
words Melissa Compton