Philip Bews and Diane Gorvin @ Broomhill
We have asked the artist to provide a statement about their work, an edited personal history, and a selection of exhibitions and commissions. The content here is entirely their words and selection. Works illustrated here have been chosen by the artist.
The works shown on this page are not necessarily on display at Broomhill.
The Artists Speak
“Since the mid 1980s we have mainly worked in collaboration on the design and making of public art, both in the U.K. and abroad. We enjoy the challenge of designing projects for specific sites, to a budget. Phil was in professional practice as a Landscape Architect for eight years, before returning to university in the 1980s to gain a first class BA Hons. degree in Sculpture.
“Diane has a degree (distinction) in Environmental Design specialising in sculpture.
“A range of skills are required in making sculpture. Phil is working increasingly in wood and stone, and Diane models clay and direct plaster. However, we both use all these processes, and also others such as welding, construction in various media and designing for specialist fabricators. The deliberately wide range of materials and approaches used in our projects is in response to the particular characteristics of the various urban and rural sites that we make sculptures for.
“For instance our public art commission for the new Rotary Arts Centre in Kelowna, B.C. Canada, last summer 2002, was designed to define a performing space as well creating an ‘announcing’ feature outside the arts centre. We worked in Canadian materials such as Marble and Western Red Cedar, and also used bronze and stainless steel. The images in the work represented many of the activities of the Arts Centre as well as reflecting our experience of living in Kelowna over four months. We worked with a Haida Carver, Jon Yeltatzie, who assisted us by carving Haida mythology on one of the Obelisks.
“In Australia we worked on an ambitious community project near Perth, directing the sculptural fire elements. In Spain Phil's sculpture, ‘Ciresio’, made for the Rinçon de Ademuz Biennial, won the gold and silver prize categories.
“Two years on, in 2003, Diane’s piece ‘Echoing Walls’ won the silver prize there. Working abroad has been a privilege because we gain a different insight into other cultures.
“We have over 50 publicly sited commissions and see their function as being life enhancing and specific to each of many varied locations. We are personally involved in the practical creation of sculpture, but where scale or production processes dictate, we also work closely with a range of specialist fabricators, such as Castle Fine Art Foundry who cast our bronzes, Jackson Fawkes, two glass sculptors, who occasionally cast glass for us, and ABR, stainless steel fabricators. These firms and others have built a good working relationship with us over the years. This has extended the range and scale of our sculpture.
“Making public art is often the result of extensive team work, and we appreciate the skills others bring in helping us to realise our ideas.”
