The Other Art Fair!!

It is with great pleasure and an inormous amout of excitement to announce that i will be exhibiting some of my latest pieces of work at the 'Other Art Fair' at the BargeHouse on Southbank in London between the 24th and 27th of November, i will exhibiting alongside some superbly superior talent. Darren Macpherson, , Twinkle. Tahnee Lonsdale and Chris Edwick.

Potfolio.

finally a final statement!!!

Henry Woods work is inspired out of an acute and intense awareness of the world around him, observations are based on life from the trivial to the profound, informed by themes from the mundane to the heroic. His latest body of work is an introspective look at the transition of change between child and man, exploring the rite of passage that seems to pass in a fleeting moment where a shift occurs in consciousness. The arrival of manhood heralds a new dawn lit by an acceptance of certain responsibilities of ones own life. A set initiation usually marks this period but in contemporary culture it is often over looked. Henrys initiation became a deep anxiety as he struggled to hold onto a childhood that had been rich and fulfilled whilst embroiled in accepting fresh roles. This new space he occupied being neither one nor the other opened up a crack in this metamorphosis, a period reminiscent to a dark night of the soul marked by isolation and a breakdown in communication, in essence walking on solid air. To explore this point of departure and arrival Henry consciously uses discarded materials owing to their loss and vacuum of meaning and purpose infinitely set in limbo to create figurative sculpture which stitches together this moment in time, sitting in a space that occupies neither one nor the other but both. The figures are primitive and saturated in childish endeavor most notably the exaggerated limbs and naive hands. The technique used to connect the pieces by simply pegging invites limbs to be moved and the figures to be mentally played with like toys, in essence these sculptures can be seen as playthings an idea is that their definition changes depending on who views them, adult or child. Embracing this idea of movement and play layers the sculpture with a certain conspicuous mischievousness. They are reaching out to the plastic playthings of his childhood wrestlers, teenage ninja mutant turtles and Ghostbusters now reinterpreted in a nostalgic natural primacy. The acceptance of Manhood occupies this space too, the faces are left blank carved to be simple and contemplative. The positioning and stances bestowed on the sculpture is consciously manipulated to be reflective of this period, projecting subtle emotive nuances layers a sophistication through the works as they each occupy their solitary islands, waiting.

Satellite

Satellite, as we play out our lives on earth there are journeys of epic proportions silently being undertaken again and again repetitively taking the same route over and over, with the greatest views thousands of satellites make an endless pilgrimage around the earth, this act of quiet contemplation inspired me to work with just a pencil to create these images of the journeys these space nomads take around the earth , the actual process was fundamental as I was taking a journey like the satellites around a fixed point repetitively marking the paper to create a route.

leaving my childhood behind.

In honesty i have always been late, subconsiously clinging on to whatever it was to be clinged on to. maybe this isnt true in the bigger picture but you cant help copare to peers at school it seemed everyone grew up or wanted to grow up so fast, like childhood is only a period to be patient through like a waiting game where you practise being an adult untill you someday somehow become one. imagination was dropped early as a distastful indicator of youth and the game to play was always prepare to get a carrear a morgage and kids, kids waiting to have kids. On moving to London the game became enhanced it became act like an adult and be somebody whilst doing it, the only break was getting inebriated on liquer powder and bass lines. At this point an anxoiusness arises where because you at 18 are still a child but now have to shed it and emerge as adult and the definition of adult becoming an aroused sence of pointless small talk an isolation through choice and a boring addiction to what other adults do.. work sleep work talk about other peoples lives and so on. I hang on and still hanging on to trying to ease myself into adulthood, this caused a great anxiousness inside of me something i centered myself around and became for a while but now i think i may have realised that you can still center yourself around an innerchild, go for it and ask it what it wants, how it would do something? a blend of accepting the responsibilty of adultness and still core touch of youth. I morn my real childhood now i think constantly i long for warmth of home and sercurity of parents nearby. Ive been thinking of where my artwork comes from because to look at my sculptures or painting etc their is an adult saphistication to them the poses the subtle carved contemplative pure faces but they are sturated in childish marks, the exagerated limbs the enterptated hands the fact that all the pieces that connect can be played with, the child alays wants to change something, to create something even with the most basic of things. The sculptures are in essence toys like the wrestlers or teenage mutant ninja turtles or ghostbuster toys id play with for years. These toys im creating are grown up not like the vinyl 'collectors toys' that you see for sale as they come from adults pretending to be children. Capturing that period in between child and adult in presence that essence of change i think makes these sculptures special its a rare bleeting moment in life not many people are concious of, they may call it 'teenage years' but teenager is a term though up in the last 60 years of our 10 million year history as humans, no becoming an adult is much deeper than that. im sorry for the spelling mistakes it was an instant stream of thought i needed to get down, will correct later. henry.

todays inspiration.--colour.

yesterday i held a workshop session with three magic kids in maida vale, the emphasis was centred around the environment however i feel the usual approach by zooming in on the doom and gloom of the industrial civilised nations mining of the earth needs to be rocked slightly, so instead i decided to angle it as a celebration of the beautiful abundance of life still on hanging on, the wonderful thing about working with and collaborating with kids is their inability to fear the next move, colour line form and shape. challenges are faced with unparalleled imagination. the result was an idea to create a boars head that was saturated in childish endeavour. this morning i woke up with a fresh state of mind and hopefully a new direction. celebration opens whilst concern closes.

Miriam Cahn

Soul food.

llink here to a great write up

Solid air. Dark night of the soul.

these drawings were part of an epic introspective undertaking.

Oscars New Era!

I was super stoked when i learnt my friends Oscar and Hannah have both entered and been accepted to the first round of the New Era hat design Comp. They both come from product design backgrounds and are heavily influenced by experimenting with processes, Oscar leans more towards smelting and the manipulation of metals his entry is awesome its super experimental. heres the linkto explain it all a little clearer and see some of the other entries.