Thoughts and Observations Gordon Senior is concerned with the issues to be found within nature. His work focuses on images of creatures-animals and birds as well as hand tools, vessels, journeys and mountains and clouds. Often the work engages the viewer in the processes of change and regeneration: hares become fired earth, a snail becomes a bronze beast of burden, clouds become rainwater and carts become concreted earth. Reference is made to the journey of life, and we consider the rites of passage for a tribe of hares on their sea journey through “fire” to touch new earth. Since moving to California in August 2002 Gordon Senior has been constructing a substantial collection of “tools”. These hand tools however are not tools we recognize. They are inventions, tools with no apparent function that leave the spectator perplexed, puzzling over what one might accomplish with these carefully made objects. Some tools appear to belong to a different world, some appear contemporary or domestic in nature. All tools have handles with the tool section made from various materials including metals, colored plastics, wire, string, ready made parts and cast bronze. The tools suggest unknown tasks to be completed in a land yet to be discovered. These are the tools to help us on that journey of discovery.
In 2005 David Roth wrote: “Broadly speaking the “it” Senior refers to is the man versus nature conundrum that culture has been mediating even since the Enlightenment. Senior’s investigations affirm that any such evaluations need to take into consideration the primacy of our relationship to the land on which we all labor.” “Embarkation” 2003 deals directly with the artist’s move from his homeland to the Central Valley. In this piece we are presented with a long, thin vessel carved from a walnut bough, in which stand in carefully ordered rows, small, pale, fired, clay hares gazing past the front of the voyaging craft into the unknown. The hare has inhabited Senior’s work before being used both as a metaphor for the artist himself and his journey through life and as a symbol of wildness and freedom.
“The moon and stars chart the hare’s flight as it crosses open ground. Eluding its prey in a well rehearsed choreography, the hare sprints and dives; turns a sharp right angel; doubles back; leaps several feet to conceal its scent. Feigning panic or confusion its plan can be mapped out like a mysterious, intuited geometry. Once fled, only its tracks remain as traces of life in the silent landscape.” In 1849 John Muir made the thirty-eight day voyage from Britain to New York. With his Father and others he was fleeing economic and social upheaval and industrialization’s impact on life in Britain. He was ten years old.
“In America, the hare became three-dimensional and multiplied (as
hares will do). Taking advantage of his new environment and new teaching
challenges (Introduction to Ceramics) Senior now made his new hares of
fired earth, and in great numbers. Unlike the tools, which create their
own context, the hares are arranged in a graceful wooden boat. Why so
many? Perhaps it is because as Senior says, memory is stronger far from
home. Perhaps because their multiplicity intensifies the sense of community
the grouping conveys. And clearly, they are embarking on a journey, setting
sail, eagerly facing new worlds—like their creator.” |