The Architectural Apparatus Series
This is an exploration of the monument in the 21st century where a classic monumental form is subverted and manipulated. As with classic monuments, these pieces use their physicality to make a statement yet unlike those of bronze or stone, common industrial materials are used.
Architectural Apparatus No.8 [Ozymandic Arch]
This follows past Architectural Apparatus themes and created for Burghley House Sculpture Garden.
Mike Shaw the Curator writes: 'The next architectural exploration takes us into earthly foundations by implying a subterranean sculpture. Doug Clark’s Ozymandic Arch explores a key structural device of building: the arch. The sculpture’s elemental geometry enlivened by its slanted embedding in the ground; this subverts horizontals and verticals to create an architectonic offset. Ozymandic Arch has a pleasingly solid physicality and is of sufficient size that it requires the viewer to move around to see it all. Much in the same way we live architecture, but with the difference of not being from within.
'Architectural Apparatus No.1 [Divisor]'
2008
Corrugated Steel and Timber. 15 mtrs x 2 mtrs x 4 mtrs.
Bath Spa University
The architecture of division and oppression bisect this space. There is no path through the steel wall except by passage made outside the space consequently, one can hear but not see others beyond the wall. Yet by placing this boundary out of context and within a gallery, it reverses the expected and established rolls, thus allowing our dominance of this 'apparatus'.
'Architectural Apparatus No.2 [Fiscal Structure]'
2009
Steel and Timber 4 mtrs x 3.6 mtrs x 3 mtrs.
The Octagon, Bath
The Greco-Roman facade has been appropriated by bodies such as governments, financial institutions and individuals to signify the solidity, trust and establishment values. Has it come to confirm the other meaning of the word 'facade', where the intention is to deceive and it's veracity is a sham; it's continued existence shored up from behind? The text is the title of the sculpture which is bounded by the Palladian pediment on the front of the New York Stock Exchange.
'Architectural Apparatus No.5 [Inverted Triumphal Arch]'
2011
Rusted Steel. 4 mtrs x 3 mtrs x 1.5 mtrs.
Salisbury Art Centre, Salisbury, UK
Here, the inverted 'classical' arch, a form that in the past has been a monument to powerful people and glorious victories, has been uprooted and appears thrown down, embedded in the ground.
'Architectural Apparatus No.6 [Inclined, Reclined, Declined]'
2011
The Holburne Museum
Rusted Steel 4 mtrs x 3 mtrs x 0.6 mtrs.
This is the companion piece to AA5 Rev.1
Each work flanked the main entrance to this famous museum.
'Fabrik'
2008
Zinc Plated Steel. 2.3 mtrs x 2.5 mtrs x 3 mtrs.
Sion Hill, Bath Spa.
This takes it's form from industrial plant and is shown within an industrial environment. It is in the form of the ubiquitous 'shed'. Its appendages indicate some undefined process going on within. It draws attention to industrial plant we depend upon but generally overlook and ignore, maybe even revile. This work tries to redress the balance and show industrial structures can have aesthetic appeal.
