Sculptor David Marshall
Sculpture is a dedication, not a career -this primordial necessity, this gene of creativity has shaped and motivated my life for the last fifty years. I am fascinated by the paradoxical nature of peoples relationship to the natural and industrial world. My subconscious has a predilection for natural phenomena -geological formations, ice patterns, fossils and degradation, the random forms of nature where no lines are straight and where sensory information comes from imperfections.
Through the casting process I have continually attempted to replicate nature while combining modern technology as a creative contrast – mixing brass and aluminium “one off” castings with lathe shavings, laser cuttings, railroad ties or agricultural and automotive materials – and establishing what I believe is a distinctive and very personal three dimensional language. This is my reaction to modernism, minimalism and all the other “isms” imposed by our increasingly depersonalized, machine arbitrated, IT society.
The impact and presence of a sculpture and its relationship to the environment should not be a conscious calculation but rather an instinctive feel of balance and space, a tactile attraction and a form of three D drawing. The sensory beauty of primitive natural materials – to transform them in original ways has been my basic reason for existing and continues to provide a fascinating artistic challenge.
