New Anna Gillespie Sculpture Exhibition

As Bath swelters all of a sudden, the great news is we can go immediately into lamentations about the excessive heat without breaking stride. Here in the gallery we have our own exciting shows to come in and cool down alongside. Next Saturday we host the opening evening for the latest collection of sculptures by Anna Gillespie, one of our most innovative, imaginative and talented (not to mention popular) artists.

Please join us for the opening evening on Saturday 18 May 6-8 p.m.

‘When I am among the trees’ by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

Anna’s new show is broadly made up of cast bronze editions, unique bronze ‘lost-wax’ cast figures combined with found wood and metal, cast aluminium, as well as unique plaster/mixed media works.

Of her subject matter, Anna says, ‘The human body has always been central to my work.  It is the lens through which I respond to my own personal history, my current circumstances and the world around me.  In this sense my work is a fundamentally autobiographical project and yet one which through its very personal approach also reaches out to archetypal experience.’

And of the mediums she uses:

‘I often work in bronze, and hugely enjoy both the material itself and the collaboration with foundry workers that it requires.  This year I have for the first time worked with a foundry that casts in recycled aluminium and heats its furnaces with ‘pre-loved’ cooking oil from the local pub.’  She goes on, ‘I am also increasingly working with plaster which allows for experimentation.  It is remarkably stable if kept dry – its raw whiteness having a beauty of its own as well as being able to take a variety of finishes.

Rodin used plaster casts extensively and towards the end of his career showed his plasters publicly to affirm their validity as works in their own right.  The pure whiteness of plaster can transform familiar forms, and in particular body casts which I am interested in, so that one sees the beauty and detail almost as if for the first time.’

‘The beauty of the world around us gives us solace even as we grieve its destruction. Some of my work is simply a way of paying homage to this beauty we are a part of, of attempting to comprehend that we are embedded in the biosphere, the web of life, rather than existing alone, at the top of a pyramid of life. My work on this aspect of our relationship with Earth often incorporates found natural materials to call attention to this connection that can be lost when we live in the ‘built’ environment and in an increasingly digital culture.’

‘In passing’ by Lisel Mueller

How swiftly the strained honey
of afternoon light
flows into darkness

and the closed bud shrugs off
its special mystery
in order to break into blossom

as if what exists, exists
so that it can be lost
and become precious

Anna will be here for the opening on Saturday 18 May from 6-8 p.m.
Come along, have a refreshing drink and browse a fascinating new collection of work.

Please note that further unique plaster pieces for the exhibition will be added to the website on Wednesday 15 May – please let me know if you would like to be contacted.

And finally...

‘The Peace of Wild Things’ by Wendell Berry

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Click on the images above to take you to Anna’s web page and her new work.

The exhibition runs from 18 May until 22 June 2024.
We are open 10-5 Monday to Saturday or by appointment on Sunday.

Any questions, queries, or for further information please phone or email.

We can take payment by phone, transfer, paypal and we ship worldwide.

Thank you very much for reading.

Aidan