Solace

This week I installed my sculpture Solace in Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Open West exhibition which is showing there throughout March and involves about 50 artists.  Having been focused on details such as transport and insurance and the costs of moving a large bronze around, I didn't expect to enjoy the experience.  But as soon as we entered the building I was truly awed by its magnificence.  The sculpture, Solace, was created in an attempt to express some of my grief at the damage we are doing to the natural environment and yet also the deep solace I still find in the beauty of nature.  But in this ancient sacred place, the cathedral, its meaning seemed to shift.  Amongst the tombs, which are everywhere including making up the very floor, the grief and the solace seems to relate more to human history - to all the people who have passed through the space, inhabited it and shaped it, over the centuries.  It feels like a privilege to have my sculpture there, to be part of all the people and events that have made up the stream of time that has filled the stone container.