Nigel Ellis

Description

This is an embracing sculpture of deceptive simplicity, which focuses the attention of the viewer through fundamental forms. Two wedge-shaped elements present their square faces to one another. Each face bears a circle, convex in one and concave in the other. There is enough space for the viewer to move between them. The outer faces similarly contain convex and concave circular forms, suggesting that the related parts could go on for ever in a continuous line. These basically described characteristics which are perceived and readily understood in the literal sense present the viewer with a direct experience to question. What else is convex or concave? What does the title give us? How do these forms work as a metaphor for someone else's ideas? In this case, Mindfulness of Breathing is a Buddhist meditation, an exercise concentrating the mind through awareness of regular breaths. The facing concave and convex forms give us inward and outward direction, a parallel for inward and outward breaths. They are also positive and negative, much as a mould in the making of sculpture is a negative form which gives shape to the 'positive' sculpture. In painting the textured surface of the sculpture white, Nigel Ellis denies the steel its material quality. The large sweeping areas take the light according to the weather conditions, the season or the time of day. Sometimes the concave or convex motifs are softly contoured by the light, at other times they are defined starkly.

As you walk through the space defined by the elemental forms of square, circle and triangle, the scale contains you, and your awareness - which might well be the real subject of this sculpture - completes the physical experience. In contemplating this piece, empty your mind, listen to your own calm breathing, and look for the hidden meanings that Mindfulness of Breathing can convey.