Alison Berman
To a large extent my body of work has developed in response to a venue or a theme set by others. 'Swaying Horses' were first devised to be suspended from apple trees and seen as silhouettes across an old orchard in Oxfordshire. Later, similar life-size horses have been on show at Oxford Playhouse, the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Withiel House in Cornwall, Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire and at Beaulieu in the New Forest.
At other times motivation has come from a sense of play. For example 'Dancing Dresses' which appear to twirl, Ducks painted with a Plimsoll line, Snails propelled by a foot or a roller skate, Vertebral Bones which can be used as a seat, and so on.
Since I am frequently asked to exhibit out of doors it is necessary to have work cast in fibreglass and resin but my favourite materials are more malleable - clay, paper and plaster. And I love 'painting' with little found objects or figures I have made as in a set of small boxes illustrating well known sayings and proverbs called 'Wise Words'.
Work is often made as a series - for example increasing sizes of Eccentric Bowls or Rusty Deer which gain extra tension when placed in a group. Tall slender vessels communicating via jets of water are essential to form the 'Fountain' standing on a mill race in the permanent collection of the organisers of Fresh Air in Gloucestershire.
Please see www.alisonberman.com for further details.