NEWSLETTER

This year, I am extremely privileged to have been awarded a prestigious commission to produce two  sculptures, each over 2m high, for the tower of the beautiful church of St. John Baptist in Cirencester; one of the Baptist, and the other of the Virgin and Child. Entitled "Project Blackjack", the commission is for the replacement of two stone sculptures removed from niches half-way up the tower in the 1960s, because they had become dangerous. They were also blackened with age, which is why the street beneath the statue of St. John became, over the years, known as Blackjack Street. Details of my intentions and a continuing record of progress can be seen by clicking here or on the image of the church, and by visiting the church's website dedicated to the project, http://www.projectblackjack.org.uk/ or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CirenBlackJack/ . It is envisaged that installation will take place in 2021.

I have also just completed a private commission for an African elephant. At 10" high by 14" long, the challenge was to produce something relatively small which would convey the power and strength of the animal, and at the same time,with a creature of such bulk, to introduce sufficient rhythm of form to suggest life and movement.

 

Publications

At the end of last year, an article about my commission, Conspiracy of Silence, produced during the year, was published in the Easel Words section of The Jackdaw.

I was asked to produce a sculpture of “the three wise monkeys,” to which I agreed - with the proviso that they would not be monkeys, and not sitting in a row.

This is, in fact, fair enough, since although the image of the monkeys is very ancient, and the association of monkeys with wisdom in eastern culture long standing, it appears that this is partly because the word monkey is a play on the Japanese word for wisdom, so it is possible that the monkeys themselves might be an afterthought.

Whatever, I wanted to present the image in human form, and as the idea developed, it took on a different direction altogether. The covered eyes, ears and mouths became a representation of those individuals and groups who cannot speak for themselves or if they can, dare not;  for those who, if they do speak,  are not listened to, or are ignored by wilful blindness.  The sculpture has therefore become an image of repression and suppression, and of the anxiety that goes with them. It is a call - that might also go unheard - against that disregard and fear of expression which have, across the centuries, been imposed by individuals; political, religious and other groups; by desensitized bureaucracies; and perhaps, most insidiously, by fashions of thought.

It is my hope that I might be presented with a situation where this 34 cm high sculpture could become the maquette for a large scale work.

Publications

Three articles by me  were published during the year:

Sculpting St. Edmund in Quad, the Oxford Alumni magazine

The Medium isn't the Message, and Reconstructing Notre Dame in the art magazine The Jackdaw.

• Jeremy Barlow Fine Art, Saxlingham, Holt, Norfolk