Tim Pomeroy solo exhibition The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh
Following his successful exhibition in London last year, the Edinburgh branch of the Fine Art Society, one of Britain’s oldest and most respected galleries, is hosting Arran artist Tim Pomeroy’s most recent solo exhibition. Tim has the whole ground floor of the prestigious Dundas Street gallery from November the 19th till Christmas.
The sculptures, (it is hoped twelve in total) , ten of which will be new works from this year, reflect Tim’s abiding interest in ‘interrogating the numinous for signs of life’ as Tim jokingly puts it. His interests are and have always been diverse; from European archaeology to the modern designed world, from ritual objects of weaponry and devotion to aerodynamics and the beautiful geometries and symmetries of the natural world. All these influences are present and find voice in this major Edinburgh showing of his work.
The exhibition is called Contemporary Sacred. The title reflects Tim’s own aspiration for his work that it be more than simply three dimensional decoration. He likes to think the best of his works contain a spiritual essence. A quality he hopes transforms the feelings of the viewer into a more meditative/ inward level… that might even inspire. He concedes it is almost impossible to talk about;
‘that’ he says ‘is why I make them ( the sculptures)’.
‘ A few years back a man came into one of my exhibitions and, talking of one of the works, said something like….that sculpture could stand on any altar of any religion in the world and it would not be out of place. It was a great compliment but a greater confirmation that he had recognised something of my more personal searching. Most of the time I don’t talk about these things. I live with the paradoxes of belief in an otherworldliness (of sorts) and this world of very concrete physics, as we all do. Making the sculptures that I do goes some of the way to helping me answer and live within these, at times, contradictory pressures. On the best of days I like to think of what I make as being a sort-of spiritual lightning conductor – when a sculpture becomes for me more than the total of its beautiful materials and my idea then I feel it genuinely has a living energy- calling the show Contemporary Sacred is I suppose a way of expressing that’.
As we know here on Arran, Tim also writes and promulgates poetry. He sees this as another way of addressing the seemingly unanswerable …
He cites one of his own poems as going part of the way to expressing this.
Ship in a bottle
Make complete for me this ship in a bottle,
the seemingly impossible and incredible
these unanswerable questions yet
about the masts of love and sails of death,
both tacking so close to the wind
they become the slicing wind’s breath.
Separate for me the man from the disillusion,
the sense of loss from the still-believing boy,
by the sea on the sand, pressing a tiny toy ship
where a cork should be, squinting
seeing sun through glass, bottle in hand.
The exhibition opens on Thursday November 19th. Tim is giving a free talk about his work at the gallery on Saturday 21st. Anybody interested in attending should contact Jacqui Murray at the gallery 0131 557 4050 to register interest.
