The Scottish Gallery this month dedicates their downstairs space to artists working in wood. The variety is huge, from artists who work in traditional hand-crafting techniques, to those who use more modern methods. Of the many artists in the show, a few to note include Eleanor Lakelin, who creates wooden vessels, both carving and sandblasting into the material to build up layers of texture. Her techniques marry the traditional – a lathe and chisel – and modern, to hollow out her sculptural forms, using UK trees which have been felled due to decay.
Anthony Bryant turns “green” wood (fresh wood which has not been dried) to staggering thinness – a fundamentally difficult process - his aim “to explore the sculptural potential of the vessel at the physical limits of woodturning.” Others take a more practical approach to function, creating furniture for use as well as sculptural effect. Angus Ross uses the traditional craft of steam bending wood – quite literally heating and damping it in steam to make it pliable enough to bend, sometimes to extreme degree, without breaking – and modern cutting techniques to create furniture ranging from stools to cabinets.
And then, too, there is Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley's sculptural work, creating everything from small domestic vessels to large scale pieces of furniture, although always with a certain heft to them, much carved from blocks of green oak and scorched to a deep black.
Wood, The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, 0131 558 1200, www.scottish-gallery.co.uk, Until 27 Apr, Mon – Fri, 10am – 6pm; Sat, 10am – 4pm
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