Doug Cocker RSA: Walldances and Other Works
Zembla, Little Lindisfarne, Stirches Road, Hawick. Viewing by appointment until April 28.
Email: brianrobertson7011@gmail.com or call 07843 625232.
DOUG Cocker is an artist who doesn't do shouty "look-at-me" showboating, although he has every right to given his stellar track record. Cocker has previously exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Serpentine and Barbican galleries in London, and at most major Scottish venues, including the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he has been a member since 1984.
During an illustrious career, Cocker has undertaken over forty public art commissions. These include works at the the Scottish Office, the University of Abertay in Dundee and at the Ben Lomond Memorial at Rowardennan.
The Zembla Gallery, set within the modernist home of Brian Robertson, a former professor of neuroscience, in Hawick, is the perfect setting for Cocker's sparely sensitive sculptural work. The name Zembla, is a nod to the fictional kingdom of the same name, which appeared in Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 novel Pale Fire.
Robertson explains: "For this new exhibition at Zembla, we focus on some of Doug's smaller sculptural pieces, including collage works and drawings. These works are almost lyrical in their sensitivity while possessing the innate strength of his larger pieces. Doug creates wooden sculptures imbued with his emotional response to an ancient land and the people who worked it. They echo the changeability of our Northern landscape and weather, while celebrating joyful yet carefully considered collisions and combinations of finely carved and found wood. Like all clever art, the more one looks the more one sees."
If that isn't an invitation to head to Hawick this Easter to see work by a modern Scottish master, I don't know what is…
Cocker also has work on display at the the Royal Scottish Academy's Annual Exhibition, which is currently running at the RSA Building in Edinburgh. The RSA show has been curated by Marian Leven RSA.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here