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Nine sculptures by Stephen Cox, exhibited together at the Meadow Gallery, Burford, Shropshire in 2004, are illustrated alongside the sculptor’s commentary on each of the works.
Stephen Cox’s achievement as a carver of stone needs no introduction here. Of particular note are the large sculptures. As a carver of big, even massive, pieces of very hard material, often extracted with great difficulty from inaccessible places and selected with meticulous care, Stephen Cox is distinct from other artists in his method of work and the sculpture he has made so far. We must acknowledge also the technical skills and knowledge of material required for the execution of such work : these abilities can only be acquired from decades of hard labour and application to the lonely task in many different places.
In autumn 2006 a major review of Stephen Cox’s work will take place in Bristol, city of his birth sixty years ago. This will provide an opportunity to view a number of big pieces placed individually around the centre of the city. The spring of 2006 also saw the consecration of a new altar by Stephen Cox in the chapel of St. Anslem at Caterbury Cathedral. This acclaimed work in its fine setting is now available for all to see. The fact is however, that despite more than thirty years of steady production the number of big sculptures on punlic view in England is limited to a relative handful of individual pieces, widely located across the country. If we add also that many of Stephen Cox’s major pieces have found homes overseas, with little formal documentation since 1990, few can be aware of the full measure of his output, or materials used, over an important period of activity. Thus, apart from the distinction of the individual pieces, there are many other good reasons for bringing together as many big works as possible to provide a collective indication of Stephen Cox’s more recent achievement.
Mounting a full scale exhibition of big sculpture, indoors or out-doors, can nowadays be regarded as a virtual impossibility. However, early in 2004, circumstances fortunately came together to provide an opportunity for an outdoor show of a good number of big pieces, including a new commission, in an excellent location. This event, which this folio records, duly took place in the latter half of 2004 at the Meadow Gallery, Burford House Gardens, Shropshire.
Rip Hopkins, born in England in 1972, is well-known for his photography and projects in Asia, Europe and Africa. Advantage was taken of his availability in England in mid summer and again in the late autumn of 2004 to make some special studies of the nine sculptures exhibited at the Meadow Gallery. The eighteen selected photographs, produced to the highest possible standard, comprise more than an excellent record: they succeed also in capturing the individual qualities of the works and eloquently convey the particular messages of each, amplified by Stephen Cox’s notes. Viewed together the studies contribute well to the wider objective of demonstrating the length, breadth and depth of Stephen Cox’s achievement in recent years.
YATRA 2004 Black & White Indian Granite Yatra, Sanscrit for ‘pilgrimage’, reflects my practice of living and working at the sources of my inspiration. In 1985 I went to India having been invited by the British Council to represent Britain in the Indian Triennale. When travelling there I was delighted to discover the tiny village of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu where a large school of temple sculpture was thriving. Here, for the past twenty years, I have worked amongst craftsmen using their ancient skills in the service of devotion, making, for my own part, contemporary sculpture appropriate to my own cultural background but responding also to the wholly different collection of references surrounding me all the time. From my house on the beach I observed the fisherman returning home in the face of the sun, admiring the simplicity of their catamarans, age-old craft made of beams of wood bound together. I was preoccupied for ten years as to how I might use these boats in sculpture. Another extraordinary local practice was the common use of split granite posts, marching across the land. I eventually found a way forward in the combination of these two elements. To preserve the beautiful catamarans for posterity I replicated them in the local black granite and placed them on a sea of posts where they soar above us. © Stephen Cox 2006
