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.