The Grit and The Glamour: Oliver Spendley, Held in Reverence

“I am intrigued by the relationships between natural forms. I found the stones in remote coves in the North West Highlands. I have a stockpile of wood collected from years of gathering and, once I’ve found a stone, it’s a case of marrying it together with the wood. I scribe the negative space gradually around the changing contour of the stone. Intuition tells me when to stop and it all comes together in a second. My intention is for these tables to be a space or platform to display special, personal, sacred things of meaning, like altars for the home. They remind me of a mountain peak bursting through a layer of thick cloud or a sea stack emerging from the surface of the ocean on a still day.” Oliver Spendley

Height 15cm, length 80cm, depth 36cm. Stone height 28cm.

Held in Reverence was first shown at Bard as part of the group exhibition The Grit and The Glamour in November 2023.