Bryan Kneale

Description

Deemsters are the judges of the Isle of Man, who, when reciting how they will carry out the laws of the island, promise to do so 'as evenly as the spine of the herring lies between its flesh'. The herring, historically the staple food of the island's people, has become a symbol of good, and Bryan Kneale, himself a Manx man, has used the form of the herring in this sculpture. He was commissioned by the Deemsters to make a sculpture for their court building in Douglas, and he has spent the last eighteen months or so investigating the nature of the fish, and relating it to one of three possible sites in and around the building - a wall, a ceiling and an open outdoor area. He found over fifty possibilities in drawings and in metal models, and decided that a structure to hang on a particular wall in the courthouse was the best solution. The wealth of ideas related to the subject meant that Sculpture at Goodwood was able to help him realise a free-standing version.

Kneale developed the form as an 'inside/outside' structure in which both the exterior and inner workings of the fish were conveyed without being too literal. The many models and drawings he made varied in emphasis from mechanistic, possibly very abstract solutions to others which conveyed more movement. The Goodwood piece is the most abstract. An inclination towards investigating skeleton forms in animals, birds and reptiles is well established in Kneale's vocabulary, and these pieces are both complex and mature.

The model for Deemster Fish is exactly like the finished sculpture. Bryan Kneale has a strong sense of scale in his work, which allows his models to be enlarged precisely. The flexibility and resilience found in corten steel allows the form in this sculpture to remain precise - a softer, polished metal would not hold the shapes so exactly.