Rhythms in Sculpture - David Sprakes 2018
In 2018 Beverley Art Gallery held a retrospective of the Nottingham-based sculptor David Sprakes. The exhibition featured a broad range of David's work from sketches, paintings and pastels to models and finished sculptures in bronze, clay, plaster and aluminium. The curatorial interpretation highlighted the link between David's work and Japanese traditional aesthetics. To demonstrate this, a special dark room within a room was built in the gallery where David's sculptures were shown in dimmed light, casting shadows in line with the 'Praise of Shadows' aesthetics of Junichiro Tanizaki.
Helena received a Travel Award from the European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists (EAJRS) to give a talk about the exhibition at the Association's 2018 Annual Conference in Kaunas, Lithuania. https://www.eajrs.net/conferences/2018-kaunas A small catalogue was published alongside the exhibition with the curator's analysis of David's work.