Ian Turnock’s sculpture is inspired by pattern, structure and symmetry in nature. One of his main sources of inspiration are the silhouettes formed against the sky by trees at different times of the year. The spaces between the branches and leaves are just as important to him; an aesthetic concept known in Japanese culture as ‘Ma’ which is akin to the silences between the notes in music. Often it is the empty spaces and gaps and their relationship to the tree that Ian Turnock is looking for just as much as the leaves and branches themselves.
These spaces are an invisible energy that give shape to the whole.
The influential graphic designer, Alan Fletcher, referring to Ma in his book The Art of Looking Sideways says:
“Space is substance. Cézanne painted and modelled space. Giacometti sculpted by “taking the fat off space”. Mallarmé conceived poems with absences as well as words. Ralph Richardson asserted that acting lay in pauses… Isaac Stern described music as “that little bit between each note – silences which give the form”
Ian’s background in graphic design influences his exploration of form and line. Drawings and photographs are the starting point from which he develops an organic, abstract and figurative sculpture. He creates intricate drawings from which the final artwork is digitally cut into stainless steel, corten weathering steel, aluminium, copper and plywood, transforming the drawn line into a tangible object.
Red more about Ian Turnock here
