Nigel Hall

Description

Soglio (Goodwood) 1994 was made some time after Nigel Hall had visited the Alps, and the site that he has chosen for the sculpture at Hat Hill reflects similar qualities in that landscape: a gap opening up, a far view, penetrating and broken forms. The rich patina of oxidised steel and the geometrically formal shapes contrast dramatically with the changing landscape. The great subtlety of line and angle to be found in this piece, Hall's largest sculpture to date, ensures that it rests well in its space. Soglio in Italian means throne.

'My work has always been about place, and for Goodwood the sculpture will echo the fracture in the broken wall,' said Hall, when planning this work. 'I like the idea of turning back and looking up the slope of the hill - a sense of engulfing and containment. I am fascinated by the way geometry can be discerned in landscape, and my preferred landscapes are mountains or the desert.

'The vertical form is the only vertical in the rolling landscape. It anchors the sculpture and relates to the viewer's vertical stance. It indicates the earth's centre. The break in the three wedge forms echoes the angled break in the long flint wall, while the truncated cone acts both as a lens and frame to focus and isolate various pockets of landscape.

'It's a meditative space, creating a ground in which the figure of the vertical can exist in stillness. The sculpture is still when the viewer is still but active when the viewer moves. For example, when moving across the face of the sculpture the vertical "knife blade" seems to open and close suddenly.'