Edward Allington

Description

This is the only sculpture, so far, that Edward Allington has made to be shown in the open air. He was persuaded to do so by the qualities of light and colour that Hat Hill Copse had to offer, when towards the end of the day on his first visit to the copse the light falling through the trees shed a red glow over the green ground cover and the trees appeared to be as perfect as those in a Japanese garden. His choice of copper for the sculpture is reflected in his first impressions, although it is a metal that he loves and uses frequently.

Elements of architecture and the realm of classicism which are central to Allington's work are here in Fallen Pediment, the concept for which at first seemed to be relatively simple. He planned to make a form which appeared to be resting lightly on the ground, with a modest presence that you might miss should you not be looking carefully. When he began to draw the slightly roofed pediment shape, distorted by pulling it round in a horizontal plane, he thought that the resolution would be straightforward. 'I started to try to draw it and although I could make quite reasonable freehand sketches of the way I thought it might be, drawing in a technical manner always failed. I presumed my technical draughtsmanship was not up to it, so I did not worry about it.'

However, when he began to work with sheet metalworkers they all began to realise how problematical the construction was going to be. He also made a cardboard structure which failed in the same way as the drawings, but slowly the work was resolved, revealing in the process the tricks that stonemasons employ when carving pediments for buildings.