Self-Toppling Statues
Nick Hornby presenting his lecture. Photograph by Pam Murrell
Whitechapel Lecture – “Self-Toppling Statues” – Nick Hornby MA
How things are designed and made, and the processes and materials required, were the themes of the recent Whitechapel Lecture, held at the Chelsea College of Art, part of University of the Arts London.
Nick Hornby MA, the keynote speaker for the evening, alumni of the College and Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptor, spoke about the ideas and inspirations that inform his work, and the methods and materials he employs to create his pieces, in a talk entitled ‘Self Toppling Statues’.
He began with his MA show, back in 2007, when he took inspiration from shapes as diverse as a slice through an aircraft fuselage, including the curved form of the overhead lockers, a helical tower from the set from a key scene from the first Star Wars film, and a turned chair leg, all created from plaster (due to its white simplicity, but mainly as there was a free supply available to students).
Fascinated by how meaning is communicated through the visual medium, deconstructing shapes, sometimes using digital design techniques, a desire to invite the audience in, enabling us to see things in a new way, as well as to make public art more diverse and inclusive, are his overarching and consistent themes.
He outlined how for one commission he received, the standard approach would be for the headline artist (him, in this case) to create a monumental work, surrounded by smaller contributions from the students. He upturned this approach, allowing each student to create their own image and then constructing the complete form in the round, so that when viewed from one specific direction in turn, each of the student’s designs could be viewed as intended – a generous and truly collaborative result ensued.
Keen to subvert and rebalance public sculptures (too many men on chairs - or horses – and a proliferation of polished stainless-steel blobs) he described how he created ‘Do It All’ (2023), Royal Warwick Square, formed from a silhouette of the nearby Albert Memorial combined with a profile of Nefertiti, perhaps the most powerful woman in ancient history - even though the initial design brief was focussed on two of the notable Kensington male residents after whom buildings on the site have been named: George Gilbert Scott and Egyptologist Howard Carter.
Another example was “Power Over Others is Weakness Disguised as Strength” (2023), Westminster, which brings together, in curved and welded steel plate, a man on horseback and a curling line. The two images can each only be seen from one direction and from all other angles the images dissolve. The man on horseback is a reference to a depiction of King Richard I first unveiled in 1851. From another angle, the sculpture becomes a linear squiggle printed almost a hundred years before that, in Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759). “The printed line records a waving gesture made with a stick during a conversation, when a normally verbose character stops talking and instead communicates meaning physically. It is a wordless representation, both in that conversation and in the block of printed text describing what was (and was not) said.”
Starting out working with plaster and then discovering the design freedom and flexibility of lost foam casting (a variant of investment, or lost wax, casting) through to increased budgets which allowed for the use of cast and sheet bronze.
Nick’s lecture was a fascinating insight into his methods and his work and all the attendees, including those from the company and the castings industry as well as the college staff and students really appreciated him giving his time to share the story of his development into an established artist.
Pam Murrell, Chair of the Industry Committee
April 2024