Nigel Hall

Description

In placing a wedge and a cone together in positions that individually would be impossible to sustain, Hall enables them to stand by mutual support. The balance and tension between them have parallels in the intellectual or philosophical content of the sculpture, as we are encouraged to think of the fleeting moment of The Now.

The relative size of the two elements, with the smaller supporting the larger and curve against flat surface, gives visual contrast to their corresponding triangularity. Walking round the sculpture, as with many of Hall's works, it is possible to see changing open and closed form. Hints of landscape or the experience of being in the landscape are evoked.

Surface and finish are crucial to the purity of this sculpture. Hard lines seem softened by the rich blue patina, evenly applied in soft patches. Raw bronze shows through very slightly in some areas where the colour fails to mask its hardness, giving one view, then the opposite - yet another way in which Hall plays with our perceptions. The more you look the more you see in what at first glance seems to be just two geometric forms placed together strangely.

The line and geometry of The Now also give balance and counterbalance within the composition. The two triangular points of the wedge and of the cone pull in opposite directions, and some views give the impression that these angles are identical. No matter how much we may analyse and reconstruct Hall's sculpture in the mind, the sheer physical balance and simplicity of these elemental forms is beyond mathematics, in the realm of beauty, mystery and poetry.

Photograph Nicholas Sinclair