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5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTEMPORARY CAST IRON ART

April 5th - 9th 2006 at The Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, Shropshire, England.

Following are the Four Exhibitions organized in Conjunction with the 2006 Conference

A 3 day exhibition open to all conference participants. See the online exhibition below for a sampling of work.

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An Exhibition on the lawn in front of the historic Darby Furnace of Coalbrookdale. From April 4th - June 12th 2006.

Barry Bailey, USA, Carl Billingsley, USA, Jim Brenner, USA, Bruce Gernand, UK, Jack Gron, USA, Paul Higham, UK/USA, Dilys Jackson, Wales, Coral Lambert, UK/USA, Nick Lloyd, UK, Gerry Masse, USA, Dave Morris, UK, Tamsie Ringler, USA, Jan Szczypka, Poland + Others : Including Selected work from the Conference Exhibition. 'IRON 2006' and The Museum of Steel Sculpture

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An exhibition of photos and documentation of Iron Furnace Sculpture + Design at The Elton Gallery, Gorge Museum, Ironbridge.

The cupola is a tool, invented to produce iron for industrial applications. More recently it has been modified to suit the needs of the artist… to produce sculpture. Similar to ordinary tools throughout history, the typical cupola was an object that did not engage superfluous aesthetic consideration, but instead focused primarily on function alone. Now, in the hands of artists, there are exceptions. Since cast-iron art has become more prevalent in American Universities, attention to the furnace as a sculptural object has intensified. As the declaration states, form follows function; however, in this case it is not limited to function alone to determine the aesthetic merit of the furnace. In some cases the function is secondary to the form while the concept is paramount. This exhibition intends to showcase aesthetic concerns and technological advances of a few generations of iron sculptors, those of whom have researched its function and advanced its visual presence within an admittedly overwhelming and fascinating process.

Organized by Matt Toole, Georgia Southern University, Betty Foy Sanders Dept of Art, Statesboro, GA, USA : Also Check out the EXQUISITE CUPOLA PROJECT

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CALL FOR ENTRIES < Keep on Scrolling down to see the ever developing Online exhibition >

IRON AND SCULPTURE "Machine-made things are the children of the brain; they are not very human. The more they spread, the less humankind is needed. What seems to be a great advance is also a great step backward; the desire for the natural as opposed to the artificial surely has some basic unchanging significance." Soetsu Yanagi.

'Sculpture, at its best, would seem to involve a kind of projected consciousness. No mere object, a sculpture potentially receives and transmits, almost like a person, a mind – not only a creation but an extension. With a past, a story, a voice, attributes, imperfections, and a full-bodied personality, a sculpture’s reason for being in the world can only be partially articulated, if even fully grasped.

A lack of utilitarian function underlines a sculpture’s purpose. A link between the life of the mind and spirit takes tangible form and shares space with our own body. As assertive and as vulnerable as we, sculpture establishes an active boundary between the rational cultural landscape populated by the necessary, the “useful,” and a world of dreams where the improbable can and does.

During the last fifty or so years a tradition has been established where, with an economy of means, sculptors directly work molten iron generated by small, self-built cupolas. With this practice, an artist can experience raw power and deeply felt humility by giving shape to the matter of earth and star – ground and sky. Often involving a literal crushing and recycling of manufactured artifacts, artists divert the flow of iron into a fictive space. Not coincidentally, these exchanges take place in the long shadows cast by the Industrial Revolution’s tail end. What better time to switch a chief agent of that movement more fully into the symbolic?

Sculpture then, proves not just an appropriate vehicle, but an ideal carrier for re-imagining the last three hundred years while announcing future possibilities. And what, if not imagination, best characterizes our consciousness? Dreaming of better is where we began. This is what the iron whispers.' John Richardson, Professor of Art, MI.