Welcome Christopher to the gallery!
Christopher makes magnificent outdoor garden sculptures out of charred wood. Having worked as a carpenter for many years after studying Fine Art at UCA Farnham, he harnesses their patterns of growth with the well-versed hands of a sculptor experienced in his material.
Hexo
Through carpentry, Chris became more and more involved in the use of timber. Collecting and working with wood over the years led him to become fascinated by their organic, textured qualities.
Focus
Christopher's experience in the applied architecture trade made him appreciate just how much sculpting he had left in him, so much so, that he left the trade to explore their compounding in the crucible of his own studio. It was here that he was able to begin delivering his artistic vision: bold three-dimensional sculptures, informed by a highly geometric eye, but equally defined by a unique material essence. In a return to one of wood's most captivating and distinctive qualities, Christopher's artwork displays an intimate engagement with wood grain: the tell-tale lines which indicate the growth pattern of a tree.
“The growth ring of a tree I relate very similarly to a contour on a map - that is, a man-made mark on a piece of paper that represents the land. The growth ring is the tree’s version of setting its own imprint, its own contour line. You can often tell what has happened to a tree by that line.”
Christopher Pike
Through charring and washing back, Christopher works to bring wood's natural contours out to the viewer, that they may better understand his sculptures as a highly-considered natural drawing.
DuOrb (Photograph: Duncan Shepherd)
His main material - Douglas fir - is a durable English softwood local to his studio in West Sussex. He understands his role as a sculptor as intimately tied to coaxing out its textures - drawing in 3D with those darker lines of wood which represent one year's growth in the tree. This means that whilst the structure of his sculptures remains highly controlled, sometimes consisting of no less than 424 pieces of wood chopped, stacked and assembled, he delights in how little say he has in determining how the final surface will turn out.
Dusk
You might see it as a kind of material collaboration: when he burns back, he can't predict what patterns emerge, and it's that element of chance, married with the interaction of succinct mathematical clarity, which makes for something so timelessly beautiful. An interaction that perhaps you weren't expecting, but leaves you admiring wood in an entirely different light. Majestic, scorched, mathematical yet organic, these contemporary wooden sculptures are not just sculptures, they are an experience: walking into the gallery this month, you might catch the faintest smell of smoke lingering on their surface...
Christopher's works will be on show at the gallery from Thursday 30th January, as part of a duo exhibition with British artist and award-winning textile designer Alicia Rowbotham.
"I hope that people leave surprised by what a natural piece of wood can do."
Christopher Pike
(Reflection, Fifteen Steps, Gradation, 2024)
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