STILL
GUY FERRER, Collection II
Mixed media on canvas, 130 x 97 cm
WILLIAM PEERS, Cilia
Carrara marble, 95 x 71 x 17 cm
In the 1990s Peers moved to Cornwall and there followed a period of fifteen years where he exclusively carved relief sculptures in Hornton Stone. Over time, his work has become increasingly abstract. In 2007 he created a large series of work in Portuguese marble and the change of material had a dramatic effect on the style of his work.
Peers’ sculptures exist as a celebration of form and shape. The apparent weightlessness of his abstractions belie the intensive labour that creates the impossibly clean curves. It is as if the stone has absorbed Peers’ fierce concentration and infused the sculpture with energy and movement. Indeed, Peers believes that created objects hold in them, all the industry that went into their production; ‘Not just the attention that is paid them – but the intention.’
Imbued with this attention and intention, Peers’ works play on the juxtaposition of the unchanging, weighty nature of the stone and the airy movement so clearly present in the shapes Peers creates. More recently, the relationship between positive and negative shapes has become Peers’ focus. The focus is now not only on the marble contours, but on the air that surrounds them, a conversation between matter and space. It is this appreciation of the negative space that gives the works their defining sense of weightlessness.
Past exhibitions include seven solo exhibitions with John Martin Gallery as well as exhibitions in New York and San Francisco. Public exhibitions include On Form at Asthall Manor, Woburn Abbey and Glyndebourne. Two of Peers monumental sculptures are permanently displayed at Linthwaite House in Britain’s Lake District as part of the Leeu Hotel Group’s collection.
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