I like using my poetry with some of my sculpture because it suggests what the work is about but does not dictate a meaning.  Poetry leaves  gaps in our understanding; these unfilled areas are just as valuable and are as much a part of the expression as what is written. It is like this in life I think: sometimes there are no words to say; a silence can speak volumes; it can allow understanding, and communicate a depth of feeling not possible with words.  

Words are power
and this is why
I stumble and trip:
I try to find them.
For mine are hiding
cowardly,
they left me helpless,
stuck themselves all over a tree -
becoming harder -
soft tissue - to paper.
And then,
as you see...
A wooden bark which
soundless sits
in its own quiet
dignity.

Detail of "Articulation" ©jenny meehan 2005

The sculpture was made during the “Sculpture with Wire” course at West Dean College led by David Farrer and Cordelia John. August 2005

Here you can read about the process of making the sculpture. 

I took some digital photographs of trees in the grounds of West Dean College; mainly of bark and the integration of a few tree trunks into their surroundings.  I used these both to inform the creation of the wire framework and also that of the sculpture’s final surface pattern.

Wire framework for Articulation ©jenny meehan

The galvanised steel wire framework  took off nicely.  I wanted a sense of control and structure but also of spontaneity.  In particular, the centre is more playful; with rings of wire to look through. I wanted to invite a childlike kind of exploration. I have also included some curved strands of wire which run parallel to each other to suggest ripples and therefore a suggestion of fluidity. This idea came from looking at the dried up river bed, which was amazingly bark like in appearance and linked the tree to the water more directly than I had expected.  Also, the drawing up of water through a trees sapwood  is a process that takes place in an active and living tree, and I wanted this activity and life suggested in the tree stump, which you would normally presume was dead.

The centre of the tree is  an area of activity and thought. From it springs a shoot with tightly curled fronds.  There is a contrast between this and the outer bark of the tree trunk.  The continuity of the wire, which runs into itself, and the places which have a surface of paper, are broken up by the pattern made by torn photocopies.  There is a touch of disintegration and erosion; I have rubbed away some parts of the paper to add to this.  The sculpture will grow dusty and dirty with time which will also help this ageing idea.  The photocopied images show what the tree once was; its branches and vigour.  There is the past, but also, in the central wire shoot, the future.  The decay of the paper surface of the tree, the bark, is not a negative thing, but a sign of growth. Its images could also signal the future, and not only what has gone before.  They do not entirely contain the centre, but skim around the form, almost as if being blown by wind; for me, meaning the Holy Spirit; alive and active. The negative spaces and shapes are there to unify the sculpture as a whole; they let you into its structure and in doing that, present a sense of unity to the superficial brokenness.

The bark itself is made from newspaper and photocopies of the greengage tree in my  back garden.  It has been sprayed with brown car spray paint and varnished with water based varnish.  I noticed when looking at some tree trunks that the bark often comes away from the wood quite dramatically leaving huge gaps.  I have replicated this in one section where there is an inner and outer wire wall which have separated from eachother.  The inner energy of the trunk is pushing the old bark away; it cannot contain the energy within it.

I was keen to let a lot of the wire structure be seen, and I  emphasised the wire in a few places even through the paper by sanding it, and also by the positioning of the photocopies.  This links the wire framework with the torn photocopies, and suggests a bit of wear and tear.   Its separate parts are linked but their connections are pretty light in places; a trunk you would expect to be heavy, and a supporting structure; but this one, while solid, is very light.

There is a spider’s nest made from wire on one side of the sculpture.  It was part of the playfulness of the sculpture to include something like this. The nest was made by Barbara Winkler. 

Throughout the week at West Dean I did a lot of writing.   This was helpful as it  helped me develop some of the concepts I was trying to express in the sculpture.  The whole experience was a bit of an artistic explosion and marked the beginning of an inner commitment to develop my artistic practice . From several poems I had written over the course, I  chose the poem "Words are Power" for the sculpture.  The words start hand written and highly disjointed and become more fluent  as the tree gets older, eventually ending up in Times New Roman.  

The sculpture is meant to be displayed sitting on a plain white horizontal surface, but for practical reasons has often been shown hanging from a vertical surface.  The dust is part of it! 

One of the photocopies used in the making of the sculpture.  

Detail of the nest.

Sculpture situated in the garden, on the tree which first inspired it. 

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