George Sherwood: Machine Tears
Boston Sculptors Gallery May 23 – June 24
By: Tabatha Flores, - Apr 18, 2012
Boston Sculptors
486 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA, 02118
www.bostonsculptors.com
bostonsculptors@yahoo.com
Exhibition dates: May 23 – June 24, 2012
Receptions: Saturday, May 26, 4-7pm, SOWA First Friday, June 1, 5-8pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 12-6pm
George Sherwood’s traditional sculpture oeuvre explores aesthetic systems of space, time and the dynamic relationships of objects in motion. The choreography of each piece is governed by a set of basic movements, facilitated by an arrangement of rotating joints and aerodynamic surfaces. His work is usually made of stainless steel, the reflective qualities of which integrate the sculpture into its environment. Wind speed and direction, shades of light, time of day, precipitation, and seasonal color transform the qualities of light and movement.
In MACHINE Tears Sherwood similarly explores movement and form as he moves into ideas of cycle and recycle where the sculptures are made of stainless steel chips or “tears” that are produced from a lathe, some of which were left over from previous years of work and used for some of the pieces on display. The sculptures themselves manifest Sherwood’s exploration of ideas by trying possibilities until organic forms evolve into static energy with implied movement.
As an avid ocean swimmer, Sherwood was inspired to incorporate the idea of movement as a metaphor for the act of spinning the material from the lathe, pulling water with his arms and hands in repetition until becoming organic with his surrounding. It is then that the sculptures are birthed from tears of either grief or happiness and then transformed into frozen bodies of energy. The two videos in the exhibition are MACHINE Tears, which conveys the explosive/kinetic formation of the tears and speaks of the material itself, where Immersion expresses the process of spinning the tears and the making of the material.
Sherwood’s work is in permanent collections, which include The Currier Museum, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, The Atlanta Botanical Garden, and the Contemporary Sculpture Path at Forest Hills Educational Trust. Solo exhibitions include 2010 at the Currier Museum, Manchester, NH, 2004, Saint Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH, 2009 / 2010 The Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, MA, 2010 Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY, and 2008 at The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, ME. In 2007 he was awarded the Lillian Heller Award for Contemporary Art at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Sherwood is a member of Boston Sculptors Gallery
The sculptor, a well-known American kinetic sculptor, works and lives in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He holds degrees in both art and engineering from respectively, the Hartford Art School and the University of Vermont.
The sculptures and videos in MACHINE Tears are exhibited for the first time during this showing at the Boston Sculptures Gallery. MACHINE Tears is curated by Tabatha Flores, an independent art consultant and curator living in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sherwood is showing concurrently with Peter Lipsitt.