Rowan Gillespie - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Rowan Fergus Meredith Gillespie (born 1953) is an Irish bronze casting sculptor of international renown. Born in Dublin to Irish parents, Gillespie spent his formative years in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

His singular and often exhausting modus operandi involves taking the work through from conception to creation, entirely unassisted in his purpose-built bronze casting foundry

Foundry

A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...

at Clonlea, in Blackrock. This is one of the things that makes him unique among the bronze casting fraternity.

Influenced by the sculptor Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

and the painter Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...

, Gillespie uses the lost wax casting

Lost wax casting

Lost-wax casting sometimes called by the French name of cire perdue is the process by which a metal sculpture is cast from an artist's sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method, primarily depending on the carver's skills...

process to portray the whole gamut of human emotions. Having worked almost exclusively on site specific art since 1996, Gillespie's public works can be found in his native Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, the USA and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

Background

Rowan's father, Jack Gillespie was a medical doctor and his mother, Moira, was the daughter of James Creed Meredith

James Creed Meredith

James Creed Meredith K.C., LL.D. was an Irish nationalist of the early 20th century, who upheld Brehon Law. He was President of the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic, Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland and a Judge of the High Court and the Supreme Court of Ireland...

, the translator of Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

's Critique of Judgement

Critique of Judgement

The Critique of Judgment , or in the new Cambridge translation Critique of the Power of Judgment, also known as the third critique, is a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant...

, Supreme Court of Ireland Judge and member of the Irish Volunteers

Irish Volunteers

The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

movement. According to Gillespie's official biographer Roger Kohn

Roger Kohn

Roger Kohn is a designer and author. He studied with Rowan Gillespie at York School of Art and is the Irish sculptor's biographer.-Education and career:Kohn was educated at Marton Hall Preparatory School and Pocklington School...

, the Irish sculptor's latest work, Proclamation, which is situated across the road from the Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum. It has been run since the mid-1980s by the Office of Public Works , an Irish Government agency...

in Dublin, was created in memory of both the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and of his Grandfather's dream of a Utopian society.

Education and career

At age seven he was sent to boarding school in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, although the family remained in Cyprus until he was ten. In 1969 he attended York School of Art where he was first introduced to the lost-wax casting process by the bronze sculptor Sally Arnup. Here he also met his wife to be, Hanne who runs the Clonlea Yoga Studio in Blackrock. In 1970 he attended Kingston College of Art

Kingston University

Kingston University is a public research university located in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, United Kingdom. It was originally founded in 1899 as Kingston Technical Institute, a polytechnic, and became a university in 1992....

where he was tutored by woodcarver John Robson and through whom he met, and was encouraged by, Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

.

Following his studies at York and Kingston, he completed his studies at the Statens Kunstole in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

. He lectured for three years at the Munch Museum

Munch Museum

Munch Museum is an art museum in Oslo, Norway dedicated to the life and works of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.-Munch Museum:...

, the Norwegian painter having a profound influence on him, both conceptually and manifestly. Munch

Edvard Munch

remains the great artistic influence on him up to the present day.

At the age of 21 he married Hanne, they had their first child Alexander, and he held his first solo exhibition in Norway. In 1977 he returned to Dublin where he set up his foundry

Foundry

/workshop and established himself in the years between 1977 and 1995 with Solo exhibitions at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin, Arts Fairs and numerous group shows throughout Europe and the United States. He then decided to concentrate on Site specific art, notably The Cycle of Life, Colorado (1991); The Famine Series, Dublin (1996/7); and Ripples of Ulysses 2000/1.

In 2007 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Art by Regis University

Regis University

Regis University is a private, co-educational Roman Catholic, Jesuit university in the United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1877, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...

in Denver, Colorado.

Sculpting Life

In 2007, Shane Brennan and Tom Burke of Moondance Productions released a film biography on the life and work of Rowan Gillespie, called Sculpting Life.

Sculpting Life received its premier terrestrial broadcast on the Irish National Broadcaster, RTÉ to much critical acclaim. The film, also aired on the Arts Channel in New Zealand, provides a unique view of the world of a bronze casting sculptor, as he creates a series of famine sculptures from research, through to unveiling in Ireland Park, Toronto. Partly based on his reading of Joseph O'Connor

Joseph O'Connor

Joseph Victor O'Connor is an Irish novelist. He is known for his 2002 historical novel Star of the Sea. Before success as an author he was a journalist with the Sunday Tribune newspaper and Esquire magazine...

's the Star of the Sea

Star of the Sea

Star of the Sea is an historical novel by the Irish writer Joseph O'Connor published in 2004. The novel is set in 1847 against the backdrop of the Irish famine....

, Gillespie enters the world of its central character, the murderous Pius Mulvey as he haunts the decks of a coffin ship

Coffin ship

Coffin ship is the name given to any boat that has been overinsured and is therefore worth more to its owners sunk than afloat. These were hazardous places to work in the days before effective maritime safety regulation. They were generally eliminated in the 1870s with the success of reforms...

and becomes an emaciated ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

, living among the hundreds of Irish emigrants crammed into steerage

Steerage

Steerage is the act of steering a ship. "Steerage" also refers to the lowest decks of a ship.-Steerage and steerage way:The rudder of a vessel can only steer the ship when water is passing over it...

. The documentary follows the sculptor as he brings the character to life in bronze.

Looking for Orion

More recently an artistic biography Looking for Orion by Gillespie's life long friend, the artist and publisher Roger Kohn

Roger Kohn

, provides an insider's view of 'the man behind the metal' with a stunningly photographed catalogue of his work. The biography documents Gillespie's contributions to his art over the last 36 years, and explores the influences of Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

and Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

on the artist.

Gillespie is unique among the bronze casting fraternity in being able to claim that all moulding, casting

Casting

In metalworking, casting involves pouring liquid metal into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowing it to cool and solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process...

and finishing is done entirely by himself in his Dublin studio/foundry

Foundry

. In addition, all installations are either carried out or supervised by him. Indeed this is central to the understanding and vision of his art.

Themes

The Irish Famine and subsequent catastrophic migration

Human migration

Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...

has motivated two major works by Gillespie, and so it must be said that the portrayal of Famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

, is a major theme of the artist's work. In several of his site specific pieces, such as Famine (1997) on the Custom House

Custom House

A custom house or customs house was a building housing the offices for the government officials who processed the paperwork for the import and export of goods into and out of a country. Customs officials also collected customs duty on imported goods....

Quay in Dublin, his life-sized human figures are emaciated and haunting. In June 2007, a series of statues by Gillespie was unveiled by President Mary McAleese

Mary McAleese

Mary Patricia McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in...

on the quayside in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

's Ireland Park

Ireland Park

Ireland Park is located in Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario on Éireann Quay at the foot of Bathurst Street. Officially opened in the summer of 2007, Ireland Park commemorates the tens of thousands who fled Ireland during the Great Famine...

. The work commemorates the arrival of refugees from the Great Famine. The Hamilton Spectator described the work as follows:

"The early immigrants are now honoured at the Toronto waterfront park by five haunting bronze statues created by Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie.
One figure depicts a man lying on the ground, emaciated; another shows a pregnant woman clutching her bulging stomach, while behind her a meek child stands wide-eyed. One frail figure is bent over with hands clasped in prayer, contrasted by a man whose arms are extended to the sky in salvation."

But it would be a mistake to categorise the artist entirely by his most well-known pieces. In lesser known, archived works such as Ambition and Aspiration, which climbs the wall of the Dublin Treasury Building, the artist reveals his sense of humour and somewhat different preoccupations. In his recent biography, an altogether different picture emerges. In his portrayals of James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

, William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

, Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

, Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...

and indeed Jesus Christ, Gillespie has undertaken his own spiritual and literary journey. His more conceptual and abstract pieces such as Looking at the Moon, The Kiss and the more recent, Proclamation, span the whole gamut of human emotions, from love and awe, to hate and self destruction. As his biographer writes:

"Rowan's passionate and often draining encounters with his subjects, and his willingness to undergo personal transformation and rebirth in light of them, takes shape in the gnarled and volcanic textures of his later pieces. They stand before us as a mature, fully fledged portrait of an essentially rough-hewn and raw witness to the emotional turmoil of our time."

Proclamation

The original model for Proclamation was called Imagine and according to Gillespie’s biographer:

“it alluded not only to the John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

peace anthem, but also to the dreams for a utopian society in Ireland espoused by Rowan’s grandfather, James Creed Meredith
James Creed Meredith
James Creed Meredith K.C., LL.D. was an Irish nationalist of the early 20th century, who upheld Brehon Law. He was President of the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic, Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland and a Judge of the High Court and the Supreme Court of Ireland...

(1874-1942)”.

Meredith, a Kantian scholar and an inspired lawyer, appointed by the First Dáil

First Dáil

The First Dáil was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919–1921. In 1919 candidates who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled as a unicameral, revolutionary parliament called "Dáil Éireann"...

(1919–21) as its Supreme Court Judge and nominated by Éamon de Valera

Éamon de Valera

Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...

to chair the committee to provide a Constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

for the Irish Republic

Irish Republic

The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...

, was judged a pacifist and his life was spared by the British authorities. In 1939, the multi-talented Supreme Court Judge, wrote a novel entitled “Rainbow in the Valley” (a work of utopian science fiction). One of the themes of this allegorical work is the imagination required to avoid war and to forge a bond with an intelligent creature from another world: a party of scientists in Western China establish communication with the inhabitants of Mars.

Proclamation has, as its backdrop, the courthouse in which James Creed Meredith

James Creed Meredith

presided when he was a Circuit Court Judge. Fourteen figures stand in a megalithic circle, at the centre of which is a plaque containing a copy of the Proclamation of Independence, engraved in bronze. Each figure has at its base a small plaque, engraved with the name and the British military tribunal’s verdict and sentence of death. The figures are perforated with bullet holes. Since the original commission was for the seven signatories of the Proclamation, Gillespie has donated the other seven martyrs to the site himself.

The figures are limbless, but far from lifeless. Fourteen martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

s stand united in a circle, blindfolded, as they would be for execution. The disturbing nature of these figures recalls the influence of Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

on the artist; and the desire to strip away the inessential differences of face and form and depict the essential nature of a raw emotion. Unlike the Migrants and the figures of Famine, the bronze of the martyrs is not left in its raw state, nor is their portrayal ‘realistic’. Almost alien, these figures are smooth and reflective, as if to suggest that they are essentially ‘more spirit than flesh’. The light reflecting off the multi-faceted surfaces of each figure ‘bouncing off one another’ (as they did in spirit) - is like a metaphor for imagination itself. In the spirit of James Creed Meredith

James Creed Meredith

’s Rainbow in the Valley – their voices curl and twist through space and a new light is formed, shining its rays like all the colours of the rainbow.

The Blackrock Dolmen, binds its figures with a great rock, which they overcome with a united strength. The martyrs of Proclamation are united only by a shared light, suggesting perhaps, that they overcome not with brute force, so much as their vision of the future. It is their willingness to die for that vision, that unites them. In the words of George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will”

Gillespie’s departure from the hyper-realistic Famine and the all to close for comfort Migrants; and his use of this abstract, twisting, reflective, flame-like form, to capture the spirit and passion of the men who attempted to create ‘a rainbow in the valley’, makes the sculpture kindred in spirit, with Dublin’s other smooth, shimmering, symbolic work of light, the Spire of Dublin

Spire of Dublin

The Spire of Dublin, officially titled the Monument of Light is a large, stainless steel, pin-like monument in height, located on the site of the former Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland.-Details:...

.

Proclamation is a monument to those who gave their lives to change the course of Irish history and release the dreams of the Irish people: and it is a reminder, of those whose light burns so strongly, it awakens the imagination of us all.

No man has a right to fix the boundary of the march of a nation; no man has a right to say to his country, Thus far shalt thou go and no further…'

Solo exhibitions

1974 Moss Kunst Foreningen, Norway
1975 Galleri Cassandra, Norway
1976 Galleri Cassandra|| Norway
Lad Lane Gallery, Dublin
1977 Galleri 71 Tromso, Norway
Bodo Kunst Foreningen, Norway
Austin Hayes Gallery, York
Lad Lane Gallery, Dublin
1978 Galleri Cassandra, Norway
1979 Alwin Gallery, London
1980 Lad Lane Gallery, Dublin
1981 Galerie Hüsstege, Holland
1982 The Solomon Gallery, Dublin
Galleri Cassandra, Norway
1983 Puck Inaugural Exhibition, New York
1983 Poole Wills Gallery, New York
1984 The Solomon Gallery, Dublin
1986-88 Solomon Gallery, Dublin
Galerie Husstege, Holland
Jonathan Poole Gallery, London
1989 - 1994 Concentrated on site specific work
1994 - 95 Solomon Gallery, Dublin
Galerie Hüsstege, Holland
1996 Decision to stop exhibition work in order to concentrate on site specific work.

External links

Gallery

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