‘Sculpture & Drawings’ – Peter Randall-Page

10 September 1993 — 23 October 1993

Sensuously carved stone sculptures have established Peter Randall-Page’s reputation as one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists.

Randall-Page combines a complex variety of sources within his work, refining them into beautifully expressive simple forms open to a variety of interpretations.

The artist is motivated by his belief in man’s engagement with the natural world, as participant rather than observer. Thus, the viewer of his art perceives human physicality interlinked with a host of organic forms evocative of cones, fossils, fruits, seeds and shells. Their curvaceous surface with its sinews, bulges, cleavages and coils invite the viewer to touch, while the mind is drawn to imagine what may lie within their inner core.

Whilst Randall-Page’s drawings are the breeding ground for his sculptural ideas, they stand firmly as bold works in their own right. Knotted worm-like creations slowly swell and uncurl, while other forms, deriving from seeds and fruit are barely contained by the paper’s margin.

A variety of carvings have been placed within the landscapes and along the public footpaths of Devon and Dorset where ramblers stumble unexpectedly upon his work. Thus, free from preconceptions, they are found to be truly thought provoking.

Castlefield Gallery aims to retain this sense of seeing things afresh, awakening the viewer to a sense of humanity’s complex engagement with the landscape and to add one’s own thoughts to the artist’s open-ended communication.