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Ian Richardson
His Möbius Strip currently stands outside what was the original entrance to the Taurus Crafts Gift shop. Its relative discomfort in this position is explained by the fact that it was originally designed for a completely different location. It is on generous and permanent loan to Taurus from Mrs Haskew of Newnham on Severn and will be re-sited when the next development of Taurus takes place. Mark Haskew, her husband, commissioned Ian to produce a sculpture for their garden. The work was designed to break the line of the roof of the house when viewed from the garden, and yet maintain the view to the River Severn from the house.
Mr Haskew, an architect, was familiar with the concept of a Möbius Strip (a flat strip of material which, given a half twist, and then ends brought together, forms a shape that confuses inside and outside, inner and outer edge) and suggested this hollow shape would work well. Of course the shape can take on an infinite number of forms, from squat and flat to tall and thin. Ian built many maquettes until one seemed to work best. It was at this stage that Mr Haskew died, but his wife felt the work should be completed and installed as planned in memory of Mr Haskew. When Mrs Haskew moved house, she offered the sculpture to Taurus Crafts.
The construction of the sculpture involved the technology of surfboard design. It employs a metal armature with polyurethane foam surround. The foam was sanded down to provide the basic shape, coated with fibreglass and then highly smoothed and polished. In this way it becomes difficult to determine what material is used during its formation. It becomes a constructed work expressing form alone.
to the Taurus Offices. Necessitated by the difference in
levels between the offices and the adjoining road, the railings were installed
in February 2003. Ian was an obvious choice. He had built the framework for the
rear gates (designed by Ron Boyd, see below) and we felt, since the railings
abut the gateway, that the railings should complement and integrate with the
gates. Whilst Ian was at Art College he was always ‘obliged’ to give evidence of
the thinking process behind his work. This was a trouble to him. Like Fritz, he
prefers to work intuitively and tries to perform the almost impossible task of
expressing himself without resorting to an intellectual thinking process.With the railings, the challenge was not to think where the bars were to go, but to just play with the shapes, taking the metal for a walk, or, perhaps, more accurately, for a dance.
In his workshop he first built a mock-up of the low retaining wall that was to be the surface to which he would attach the rails. In that way he was free to ‘do his own thing’. The metal bars came in 6m lengths so the railings were constructed in sections about this length. He trapped the first metal bar at one end and, with a homemade purpose-built tool for gripping and bending the bar, he proceeded to form the top bar. He intuitively filled the space with flowing, rhythmical shapes, free of pre-planned forms.
Ian refers to the railings as The Telephone Doodle-pad Railings. Doodles they might have been, but if on reflection they didn’t ‘hit the right note’, they were ‘replayed’. The musical metaphor is appropriate here since the railings were made in his workshop whilst various styles of music played in the background. On re-visiting the work, Ian has remarked that he can see how the shapes have taken on a form expressing the music he was hearing when he made them. This is most clearly visible in the jazz-inspired cacophony of shapes towards the far end of the railings.
The railings remain deliberately unpainted. For Ian, the task involves letting the metal express its own inherent characteristics. Painting, or treatment in any way, would become a barrier to this and, more abhorrently, start to create some form of illusion.
Ian is firmly of the opinion that his dyslexia helps him express his feelings in a direct, unimpeded, way. He regrets that his tutors at college somehow couldn’t (or wouldn’t) grasp this fact.
Trained at the University of the West of England. B.A.(Hons) Fine Art
Exhibitions include: Severn Revels, Blaisdon Hall, Glos; House of Art, Newnham
on Severn; The Barn at Hay Farm; The Axiom Galleries; Open Sculpture Exhibition,
The Royal West of England Academy
Collaborations & Projects include: ‘Running Wave’ with ‘Artful’ group;
‘THORkestra’ with jazz musician Nick Moore; ‘Vladimir Vladimir’ with Wellspring
Opera Company. For ‘Rearsby Roses’, created the central feature for showcase
garden at Chelsea, Tatton Park and Hampton Court flower shows
Extensive teaching experience at Infant, Junior, Secondary and Further Education
levels, plus community workshops and special needs groups
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