Upstairsatthegeorge's Blog

6th May – 11th June 2011

Seamus Staunton        Chamber works

A collection of small works by acclaimed sculptor Seamus Staunton, this exhibition comprises exquisitely made colourful constructions that are abstract, but inspired by music, poetry and landscape. Recurring themes and variations run through this series of intimate sculptures, which manage to be both mysterious and strangely familiar.

Robert Clark, of The Guardian wrote:  ‘Seamus Staunton fashions sculptures of extraordinary organic grandeur. His abstract work is so well made and structured one feels it might have some practical application. Some look like dream boats or buoys, others like foghorns or the sound boxes of some strange shell-like instrument. One way or another, they all appear to have been crafted with a passion for oceanic rhythms and sounds. This air of half-familiarity adds to their strangeness. Many resemble containers that hold nothing but a distant tremor of undefined resonance.’  

This exhibition covers three years of drawing and video-drawing explorations, from studio-based practice to site-specific works involving public participation. One body of works explores the activity of drawing meditations in juxtaposition with music. Further works engage with the act of drawing as performance; drawing as an action in dialogue with the place of its making as well as drawing as a reflection of that place (Jerusalem’s Damascus gate).

Three recent projects made in Gloucestershire will be presented: drawing as an act of public participation in Cheltenham museum; drawing as an harmonious action of body and mind, space and time in Gloucester Cathedral, and a fresh Newnham drawing performance that will record the light phenomena during the week of the equinox.

David Behar-Perahia is a French/Israeli artist who works in diverse media: video, sculpture, installation, drawing and performance, mostly within a site-specific approach. In his work he analyses the notion of ‘place’ to discover the layers that compose a local context, while relating to the cultural, social, historical and physical-geographical aspects. His background in Science and Architecture enables him to approach localities in a unique way. During the last decade he has exhibited extensively in Israel, the UK, France, Italy (including the 53rd Venice Biennale) and Greece. David Behar-Perahia is the current artist in residence at Gloucester Cathedral; view his residency blog. For further information on the artist, visit  www.davidbehar.net

This exhibition is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Embassy of Israel, London.