ABOUT

 

From the Peanut Factory in Hackney Wick, East London, Russell Bamber is making sculptures that flirt with function, cavort with scale and frolic with surface. He has an eloquence, confidence and originality with form, material and colour that teases, amuses and beguiles.

 

Simple forms are extruded, distorted and butted to expand the space they occupy and challenge logic. Each facet collides with the next at perpendicular angles. Size and configuration are exaggerated and misconstrued by colour and reflection. Planes and form interplay and confuse the eye.

 

Within the complexity of colour the simplicity of form acts as a vehicle that shouts of the hierarchy of sculpture but whispers of the utilitarian function. The viewer is enticed on a journey of questioning, unsure quite which discipline his sculptures occupy. Are they sculpture, painting, design or architecture?

 

Russell sees his work as sculptures. Form is primary, colour secondary and function . . . way down the list but crucial to his thinking. The absurdity of a decision is often his reason for that decision.

 

Russell plunders his environment for highlights: Gibberd’s Harlow Civic Centre, the Peanut Factory’s Dutch gable, a baroque balustrade near Barolo, Italy; he sees them as gifts which he re-assigns, re-interprets and enhances. His craftsmanship oozes

care, seduces us and captivates us; his excitement and joy of materials is infectious.

 

Russell Bamber is open to commissions. Please feel free to contact him directly.