Gallery Artists: Dennis Westwood

Although skilled in the use of the figure as image, the main thrust of the work for many years has been observed form unrelated to subject, making images which cross refer, with the pleasure of the visual experience for its own sake. Seeing is a tactile experience, the eye cam travel like fingers to explore surfaces and textures, to locate transitions and to 'feel' juxtapositions. Both these senses - of touch and visual perception - are important in these works to provoke and involve imaginative responses, responses which are not necessarily related to a subject though, without doubt, such knowledge can embellish the experience. Matters such as the biographical, sociological and rhetorical, to mention but three, belong to other creative ideas not primarily concerned with vision and thus not essentially within the sculptor's remit.

The bulk of the technical work on these pieces has been done by the sculptor; the mould and wax making, the preparations of ceramic shell, the ginding polishing and patining are all done at his studio in England. The kiln firing and the bronze pour have been delegated and are in the province of a good friend with a small professional foundry. The results may indeed be ninety percent sweat and ten percent inspiration but it is all a cumulative sensual experience.

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