Why call it negative
space? In a Denerley sculpture the so called negative space can be tiny but important. It could be the few
cubic-millimeters of air between metal pupil and metal eye that give a
sculptured horse its soul, or it could be larger. It is also the surrounding
air that a sculpture inhabits. This external negative space takes her work
beyond the gallery plinth, and into the wild. It makes a Denerley dog hunt, gives
her hen harriers a world to belong in… so to celebrate the ‘negative’ we are
calling Kilmorack Gallery’s big August exhibition of new work by Helen Denerley
POSITIVE SPACE.
Work is still underway for the preview on the 9th August, so all I can show is a
few studio shots of work-in-progress. Below is Helen working on horse's legs in
her studio. Observations, thoughts and working drawings for a large-scale work like
this can take years to gel. For horse Denerley observed some well-known Aberdonian
horses as well as a friend’s horses in Spain.
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| Helen Denerley working on 'Horse' in studio |
I also have a photograph of an almost complete Hen Harrier Food Pass. This is a feat of
acrobatical wonder in the animal world, when a male hen harrier passes a live
vole to its partner in mid-flight. It is also a feat of positive space wonder
in the art world, leading Julian Spalding (writer and former Director of
Glasgow Museums) to say that Helen Denerley ‘is a sculptor not of substance,
but of absence.’
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| Hen Harrier Food Pass |
This awareness of the wheel of absence and substance is one of the secrets Denerley uses to bring life into
the inanimate. It is also the exhibition which follows on from her partner’s
death last year. Many of us feel this life in absence, even if it is looking for
a ghost dog at a wind-blown door. There is no such thing as an empty space.
Tony Davidson
Gallery Director
Positive Space
New work by Helen Denerley
10th August - 7th September
A catalogue is available on request
01463 783 230
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| Pheasant |
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