At work on Wing / Petaluna.... (its a family affair!)

Keeping busy ... But blog site updates needed!

More neglect of my blog and site here over recent months. Apologies to all for the numerous broken links to images; these were once all linked through to Facebook posts, but I believe Facebook had a change in policy - hence lots of blank boxes where nice photos once resided. I'm going to try and grasp the nettle and repair all of these over the next week or two.

In the meantime, here's some pictures of a piece entitled Wing / Petulura . Originally finished as a plain aluminium piece, I've recently incorporated some Stained glass I rescued from the skip on a job I was doing as part of my stone masonry. How builders and developers can commit 150 year old stained glass from a Cathedral (Birmingham School stained glass, no less)  to landfill without so much as a backward glance, only heaven knows...

Sioban Coppinger

Last weekend I had the pleasure of 'studio sitting' for my friend Sioban.

Aside from a big dose of 'studio envy' (and BOY is  her set up at The Muse every sculptors dream!), it was great to meet some really nice and friendly people. Its making me realise how limited I am by my set up: On the one extreme I have the dirt-floored grunge of 'the shack' and the foundry - and on the other, I have the difficulty of juggling a household with all the detritus which trails in an artist's wake, from plastery finger-prints on tables, to blobs of wax on the floor and strange chemicals sat on the draining board.

With the imminent arrival of a small Robson junior, the slightly chaotic nature of the Robson living space is going to have to change. I'm hoping that some additional space near the foundry will help. Having a house full of art is one thing, but without the space to display and preserve it, its not a lot of use.

Anyway, it was great to be able to help others explore Sioban's place of work and the wonderful and varied pieces she has on display. Please go and visit her website and have a look for yourselves: http://www.siobancoppinger.co.uk/

Remiss as usual...

A really busy time completing a public sculpture for the Wildlife and Wetland Trust, working on 'Sagittarius' models for The Boscombe Down Aviation collection - not to mention with the guys and gals from The Bullpen, producing works for a n exhibition which will start off in Swindon's STEAM museum before moving onto the Didcott Railway museum... <>

... and that's not all - several private projects to try and fit in amongst it all too...

For a nosey at some of the pictures from Steam here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.785702124795504.1073741835.178299548869101&type=1

The summer also saw me complete 'The Listening Horn'. I just wish that time and personal life allowed me time to go to the opening which is happening tomorrow... It was really fun working on it and I'd love to meet up with Beth and the rest of the crew there, but alas, other things have to come first (not least, a day's paid work, sadly...)

You can find a full list of pictures for the install of the Listening Horn here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.550633001713062.1073741837.256925584417140&type=3

Also, don;t forget to check in the 'Finished Projects' and 'Exhibitions' sections for updates.

Speak soon(er),

Tobes

A quick visual update on a couple of commissioned projects which are keeping me busy for April (more details to follow on completion regarding their final location - but I'll keep you informed as things develop)

This is part of 'The Listening Horn' - a reclaimed/recycled old railway tannoy . The finished piece will stand the best time of 3m tall...

This is a piece I poured the other weekend and which may well form an inspiration for a forthcoming iron-pour...

... And as part of the same tranche of work, I'm also producing 7x copper lily-pads for a water feature...

100th Anniversary Public Art Memorial Draft Proposal.

100th Anniversary Public Art Memorial Draft Proposal.

'The Iron Harvest'

The following idea has had a long gestation and is a natural coalescence of a number of themes and ideas which have come together over a number of years. Together, they for a concept which could be used to create a piece of public art which seeks to explore, directly represent and contextualise the human cost of the first world war.

Introduction:
During a visit to the battlefield of Flanders in Belgium, I was struck by the piles of iron which build up each autumn at the sides of the roads. Belgians living nearby the World War One battlefields are highly familiar with them and call this time of year 'the iron harvest'. As the farmers plough their fields, even now, all these decades on, the ploughs still turn up tons of detritus, ranging from barbed wire, corrugated iron and bars, through to parts of guns and unexploded shells and bombs – some containing poison gas. The locals are now somewhat inured to this grim reminder of what happened a century ago, and with typical Belgian practicality, they carefully stack the iron in places where it can be collected for safe disposal. Indeed, the Belgian army suns an annual service in which trucks patrol the fields grown over the old battlefields and trenches in order to deal with the old munitions.

As an artist specialising in the use of cast iron, this struck an immediate chord with me. It seemed incredible that after all these years, this volume of material was still being turned up (and presumably, will continue to come to light for generations to come) – a grim annual harvest indeed and one which still kills: In Ypres, over 260 people have been killed by old munitions in the last 100 years.

Researching the phenomena further, I was amazed to read that so much iron had been put into the ground in the form of military materials that it was literally poisoning the soil and make it difficult to grow certain types of crops. That seemed incredible as iron and iron oxide (rust) is not renowned as a toxic material, and it again reinforced the  scale and sheer volume of material we were talking about to have achieved this. The statistics made astounding reading:

'During World War I an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front.' - "Legacies of the Great War"  BBC News, 3 November 1998,

In the Ypres Salient [alone], an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the Germans forces fired at each other during World War I were duds, and most of them have not been recovered. - Daily Mail. 10 November 2013.

In 2013, 160 tonnes of munitions, from bullets to 15 inch naval gun shells, were unearthed from the area around Ypres.

These figures were mind boggling. 160 tonnes of just munitions (to say nothing of the presumably many times more amounts of metal which made up the 'ordinary' detritus of war.)

It was whilst pondering the scale of all of this that I also considered another point. It was not only the machinery of war which had been buried in the soil of Belgium and France. It was also in a very literal sense the flesh and blood of millions of British soldiers. In just the same way that the plough shares turn up shells, so to dedicated archaeologists continue to find the bodies of long forgotten human victims.

And it was at this point that I realised there was a very literal link between the metaphor of the Iron harvest and the fate of those killed in the trenches. Blood contains iron. Indeed, a human body is said to contain enough iron in the haemoglobin to make a 7cm nail – about 3 to four grammes.

It is estimated that just under 900,000 British troops died as a result of the war – the majority in the trenches and a further 1,663,000 were wounded. According to wikipedia:

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million. There were over 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The total number of deaths includes about 10 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 6 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. At least 2 million died from diseases and 6 million went missing, presumed dead.

To concentrate on the British casualties alone, were these figurative nails to be stood on end, 1cm apart and arranged in a square, you would end up with an area 9.5 metre by 9.5 metres– a truly vast area even at that scale.

The Proposal:
I should like to make a cast iron sculpture which fuses the above background themes together. Using my contacts in Belgium and at The Ypres museum, I would like to source a quantity of iron collected from the Iron Harvest (note, this will be inert munitions, scrap iron from barbed wire etc) which will be converted into castable iron. Using patterns created by me and sand moulds, a piece of sculpture will then be cast using the metal.

The piece will resemble a bed of nails, but cast in a series of squares. Each individual 'nail' within the square will be 7cm high, each representing the life of a singe individual. The piece will form a visual metaphor which works of a number of levels;

• as an image symbolic of troops drawn up in military order and also of the serried ranks of graves in the commonwealth graves
• by resembling a bed of nails, as a symbol of the suffering caused
• by being cast from metal from the iron harvest, of the legacy of war and how the experience of the First World War still reaches out to us all, even as we have reached the centenary of its beginning
• by being cast in metal from the iron harvest, as a symbol of the blood of the casualties which remains in situ in the ground in the battlefields of France, Belgium Galipoli etc.
• as each nail represents an individual, the piece will contextualise the scale of sacrifice and the way in which that scale becomes so overwhelming that it almost numbs the viewer to that fact that each element was an individual, living, breathing person.
• the piece itself works as a visual metaphor; by resembling a field of wheat; not only has the battlefield now reverted to arable farming, but the object also symbolises the 'harvest' of human life

The use of iron as the medium for the piece also works on other levels: The First World War is generally regarded as the first fully industrialised war. Iron and steel were the primary metals involved, The Edwardian period preceding the widespread use of aluminium. Iron was the metal used to manufacture the gun barrels, the bayonets, the barbed wire, the tanks, the battleships, the submarines, the helmets and the vast majority of the mechanisms of war.

'Scalability': 
This project is inherently adaptable and flexible. All of the criteria listed about are just as relevent to any group of individuals – whether used to represent a nation, an army – or even a specific region, town or regiment. By casting the 'nail' element in 10 x 10 blocks (each representing 100 individuals), the piece can be scaled as appropriate.
For example, The Wiltshire regiment lost 5,200 men during the war. If each individual 7cm nail element was placed upright and spaced 2cm apart and cast in blocks of 100, This would equate to an overall piece approx 1metre 44cms square.

Local references/possibilities (Wiltshire / Swindon)
ABICA has already established a relationship with STEAM and will be undertaking a project this May to produce a series of sculptural works in cast iron inspired by exhibits from the museum, as well as hopefully including input from workers from GWR which had its own foundry. GWR in particular has close links to the first world war, not only in terms of the importance of the construction of rolling stock for the war effort, but also for the large number of workers who volunteered for service and did not return. I include some links in the 'further reading' section for further background of aspects which could easily be linked to a project with specific reference to Swindon.

My qualification for this project and personal interest in the subject matter:
I am a founding member of the British Association of Iron Casting Artists (ABICA) and have been producing sculptural pieces in cast iron since 2004. I have exhibited work in Swindon, Bath, Oxford and Bloomington in the United States.
Both Great-grandfathers on my maternal side served in the first world war, and both suffered gas injuries whilst serving near Ypres. In addition to the interest and passion I feel for the subject matter, I feel like I have a personal link to this period of history.
I am also an amateur military historian, and worked for a period of time as a military aviation film archivist for documentary film-makers, Wingspan TV in Bristol.
I have a direct contact with the artist in residence at the Ypres museum and other contacts across Belgium to help me source scrap iron.
Through ABICA, I have access to iron foundry equipment and the assistance necessary to realise this project, should suitable funding become available.

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest – a general overview of the Iron harvest.
http://fwblackandwhitecasting.blogspot.co.uk/ - an example of some of my finished works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties – comprehensive information about WW1 casualties
http://www.abicanetwork.org.uk/ - webpage of the Association of British Iron Casting Artists
http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/research-family-story/2179-the-gwr-casualties-project-.html – Information on the GWR Casualties Project
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwr_casualties/sets/72157623520135696/ - Photos from the GWR Casualty Project

Future Projects

This section is going to appear very disjointed for a time _ I'm going to use it as a repository for images and quotes which will be informing my work for the next few months, and BOY is there a ton of stuff to work on through. First up, Wez and Helen at the revamped/relaunched Bullpen have announced a series of new pours for cast iron to take place in February, then I have a series of projects which have been tickling the back of my mind for ages now and which I'm beating myself up for not having realised sooner.

SO - much of the notation and linked here might appear disjointed or part of an apparently meaningless riddle - but they all fit together (at least to some extent) within the Robson brain. If anyone passes by and has a question, feel free, as frankly I could do with some checks and challenges to keep this meandering path on course ;).

In the meantime, I'm feeling very inspired by some wise words from the lovely Sioban Coppinger on next steps in my pseudo artists career (ie the time I have left after the bits of marketing and the heritage conservation.) I'm also keeping my thoughts and best wishes with Pam Brown - the woman who has the very dubious distinction of having set this whole crazy train of activity in motion. This summer is the tenth anniversary of the first time I set foot at Moss House... As they say, the rest is history!

There are of course some darker aspects of the processes which are leading to what I hope comes to pass - but what can you do about the aspects of fate which shadow your path, both behind and ahead? Its a typical artists cliché to react against things all the time. I'm hoping to absorb those feelings and naturally reflect them rather than wallow and indulge in them. Experiences create a thread through your life which is inescapable - and the knots in it can either be treated as a weakness and flaw, cut out repaired maybe, or hopefully, absorbed, incorporated and accepted and made stronger for having had them. That seems to be where I'm aimed at the moment: its not what happened or happens or will happen, its about determining the fake from the real, and to being able to judge who's and whats merely damaged and who is overtly malign. It means this blog is essentially a very personal journey from here on in and I have to put objectivity out of the picture for the time being: I have learnt the hard way that what ever you think you know about anyone is only ever going to be seen through the lens of your own hopes and fears. That, dear reader, means I've got to stop thinking about you at all. So if things become indistinct from now on, that's why.

And so it is with the creative process, I guess. There's going to be a branching in the path - some work will be created with no other intent but to sell to enable me to continue my practice - that'll be the stuff 'looking out'. Others will be for me and me alone. The looking inwards. I've learned I can't trust those I believed in, so its time to try and learn to trust the only person I know. I've always previously felt as though that kind of logic is an indulgence - but I've lost important reference points within the last couple of years.

That's the waffle - the attempt at self justification and the typical artists rationalisation. Its a process which makes me deeply uncomfortable, given the contempt I've learned to hold so many conventionally arts-educated artists and their collegiate spout, but deeds without thoughts or words are empty, even if so many use them to obfuscate the fact that saying and doing are two entirely different things...

So, the following is a scrapbook/diary/reference resourse of images and thoughts as they come. No apologies. here's hoping they make sense in the long run when seen in the context of the pieces they inspire.

 

 

Quick updates...

I've been a slightly lazy blogger once more! I'll add some more pictures to 'finished works' shortly, but must confess that a lot of my more up-to-date posts are going onto my two arts and work related Facebook pages. Please come and 'like' them!

www.facebook.com/Blackandwhiteconservation is my page which details my stone restoration and repair work

www.facebook.com/BlackandWhiteCasting is my page for my arts related escapades

Oh, and if any of you are sculptors with experience of iron casting, I'm also a founder member of ABICA - the Association of British Iron Casting Artists. That too has a page if you'd like to find out more: www.facebook.com/pages/ABICA

Another long break...

Its been a long while since I posted anything here. Its a sign of how busy I've been, and how (until recently) Facebook was a more convenient way of keeping people up to date with what I've been up to. Thanks to the more mercenary way in which Facebook is being run, this is no longer the case! Stimulation if any was needed to both keep the B&W blog a bit more up to date - and to get on with the long promised commercial website I've been promising myself.

If you take yourselves over to the finished works section, you can see a draft picture of the latest piece 'Petalura', which is going to be part of the exhibition I'm running with Gina Dunford in Bath this August (details tomorrow). There are a number of other works in the offing - including this draft picture:

There's plenty changed on this cast iron piece since this photo was taken - the base has been proofed with a weather-proof black paint and the base will soon be mounted on a level plinth and the recess filled with water. I've done some tests and the effect is pretty damn good. More photos to follow...

Here's another light-hearted casting for Entomos too -

 Come 'like' my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BlackandWhiteCasting in the meantime for some recent news and images - but as I said at the beginning of this post, maybe not forever!!

Long time. no see

Hello all,

Its been a long time since I've logged on: various reasons and excuses, but the last 12 months have been 'interesting'. Lots of lessons learned, I guess. There'll be a major update and upgrade of my online offering in due course - and expect to see this blog and page incorporated into a seriously updated 'proper' artists gallery.

In the meantime, I'm going to post up some episodes from a piece of writing I'm doing in association with Gina Dundord and our forthcoming insect themed exhibition 'Entomos' which will be hosted in Bath this summer (details to follow). Come find my Facebook page, Blackandwhitecasting - or the Entomos Facebook page for more details!

Pitt Rivers film

Not sure if I remembered to post this before - here's a film of the work at the Bullpen in relation to the exhibition of cast iron work that featured there:

http://vimeo.com/search?q=pitt+rivers+bullpen

(this isn;t a direct link as yet, but will hopefully be added to Youtube in the next few weeks)

Here's a short film (with me in it somewhere - blink and you'll miss me!) from my good friends Wes and Helen from The Bullpen.

As mentioned below - a new exhibition coming up soon at the same venue in Bath with a different mix of art and artists - with your's truly in the sculptural vanguard.

Within Without You - Exhibition in Bath

Within Without You
Top Floor
The Pet Store
BA1 1QR

“Turning an empty space into the most dynamic art show in town”
25th May – 10th June 10am-6pm
Don’t miss this opportunity to visit the 1st WWY show

New Art by 16 Artists from Russia / Germany/ Sweden/Spain and Uk
Curated by Brian Robert Gibson
http://withinwithoutyou.info/
Contact - Briangibson908@hotmail.com

Exhibition in Bath

I've just recently had a selection of work exhibited as part of the Bath Fringe at the Old Pet Store as part of the 'Within Without You' collective. The exhibition sought to promote the works of marginalised artists and those who have experienced issues with mental health, depression etc. Speaking to organiser and old friend Brian Gibson, it appears the show has been a roaring success - so much so, that the curators of the next exhibition to appear in the space have offered him the top floor of the building for a further six weeks - and I have been invited to participate once again. Watch this space for more details.

Cheerio to The Pitt Rivers

... a big thanks to Helen and Wez Jacobs and all participants at The Bullpen for the fantastic opportunity to exhibit at the Pitt Rivers Museum (see the 'Exhibitions' section for pictures and info)...

It was great to be able to see one of my pieces displayed in such a fantastic venue.

Talking of exhibitions, I've found out that another of my pieces (a collaborative piece with Allison Baker) is due to be displayed at a hosted auction/exhibition in America... I shall let you know what transpires (keep an eye on the Exhibition section for more news.)

The other bit of gossip is the magazine article about the sign letters I made for Kiss The Frog Again - an article is due to appear in the March edition of Sign And Digital Graphics Magazine -  http://sdgmag.com

More info soon!

Of topic ranting!

I've popped a note about my current display of stuff at The Castle in the Exhibitions section which turned into something of a diatribe about the council attitude to arts and culture in Swindon... go have a nose!

In the meantime, I've been contacted by Swindon 105 Radio about the possibility of doing an interview based on my art... watch this space for details...

EDIT - more info and stuff

I promised some new photos in my last posting - here we go:

Here's a new shot of the still unnamed piece installed at the Solsberry Outdoor Museum in Indiana. A big thanks to Allison and Gerry for getting her so beautifully installed.

... And heres a shot of the completed plaque made for Mr Chris Chilvers:

A Long Update

Well - its been a while once again!

Last month I spent a very enjoyable time playing with the folks down at The Bullpen in Stanford in The Vale. It was my first foray into ceramic shell casting - which was interesting (I can claim to have been there and done that now!) - but I was somewhat unimpressed by the results. There's no doubt you get a fine surface finish - but it seemed to me that it was poor compensation for the huge increase cost in materials - and the sheer horror of having to chip your piece from the resulting concrete like white mould. If you want a fine surface finish, why not cast in sand and work a fine finish? It seems like the quicker and easier (not to mention cheaper!) option to me. Of the three pieces I cast in ceramic shell, one has broekn trying to remove the shell, one did not fully cast and the third DID come out extremely well. However, this was a small and relatively simple form with flat plains which meant breaking off the shell was relatively easy. Horses for courses I guess - I have much yet to learn!

Other news is that Gerry over at the Solsberry Open Air Sculpture Museum has installed the piece I cast over there in the summer. Bathed in the dappled light of an Indiana forrest in the fall, its looking very nice (and situated in a location which brings a smile to my face!). Gerry has sent me a rough photo or two which I'll post here later - and I'm hoping that Allison will be able to take some more photos for me so I can include them in a brochure I'm planning for the new year.

Other news and musings...

The Bullpen pour was jolly good fun (cursing ceramic shell aside!) Particular highlights included a visit to the excellent Pitt Rivers museum, where we were entertained to a video on primitive casting, and lots of chats, flights of casting fancy and theorising with the other artists and artisans. Two things to come from these conversations may well find their way of the B&W Casting project list. One is a concept for a centrifuge for detailed castings - the other is to more fully explore the possibility of using thermite for casting in iron. More on this soon!

Something which I'll add to the exhibition list soon is that a bunch of my stuff is currently on display up at The Castle on Prospect Hill. Given the parlous state of arts and culture in this town, post political meddling and cuts, its good to see that local businesses are stepping up to the plate. The hosts get free decor and artists get a place to display their work. Pub regulars get a change of scene and some art which hopefully stimulates a bit of conversation - and small minded or unsophisticated binge drinkers prefer to move along to a theme bar with wipe-clean posters. Everyone's a winner!

Other things on the 'to do' list are to make sure I cast up a load of some ornate aluminium 'salamander' door handles for Kiss The Frog Again (who are interested in stocking them - and who have, incidentally, been in receipt of some high level architectural and design praise and for their signage, the very letters for which were cast by your's truly cast!)... and once thats out the way, I also need to take things forward with a possible commission to cast a pigs head for a local pub (and if you're local to Swindon, I'll let you work that one out for yourselves!)

Oh, a big thanks to 'Mr C' (He'll know who he is if he reads this) for his patronage regarding 'Autumn 3 and 3'. That people are prepared to support artists is what makes this endeavour possible - especially when funds are limited!

I'll come back to this post soon to add you some links and photos.

Back out in the States - a very busy month!

An empty blog for over six weeks - not good! Well, I do have an excuse (or a long list of them). One goes by the name of Allison (more on this in due course)- another is Swindon Open Studios - and the other is my latest trip out to the USA. Yes, thats right - I'm back, after only a few weeks gap.

I've just discovered that I've been given the fantastic opportunity to participate in this Year's 'Paradise Pour' - otherwise known as The Columbus/Indiana Cast Iron Invitational 2011. Its not every day you get an invite to something as cool as this. I've got to get cracking as it kicks off in a just over a week.

And if all of that wasn't enough, I've got The Bullpen pour to look forwards to (better dust of my leathers!)

I'll let you know more about all of these adventures in due course...!