Martin Waters
ARTIST STATEMENT
Artists statement for Beverley Art Gallery.
“Beneath the Surface” exhibition. 2006
I have been collecting stuff for most of my life but in the last few years I have made artworks specifically about these collections and the detritus found at Spurn Point.
The link I am making with archaeology is the discovering, collecting, recording, arranging, mounting and displaying of the found objects.
Other aspects of the work are my fascination with disguarded items and the life they may have had before, photographed, frozen in time, to be given another life as an art work.
Gloves have a special place in my work; I think it is the connection with protection and the human contact, the wearer having perhaps left their mark in some way. What was the previous owner like, what did they do, where did they live?
COLLECTIONS - COLLAGE - ENVIRONMENTAL ARTWORK - TOTEMS
My work is concerned with the elemental nature of existence and the transient form of natural and manufactured objects.
Importance is placed with the elemental effects on natural and manmade materials from exposure to the sea.
They are evidence of the power of natural forces to change this detritus into unique special objects of great beauty for their own sake.
Special objects? Why? When glancing at the pebbles on the beach, do we find an individual stone so personally exciting or uniquely appealing? Seeing the object through an artists’ eye I feel it stands for itself and should perhaps be displayed individually or as a collection, not altered or used to create a pictorial image.
A lifelong preoccupation with collecting and the nature of sequence and repetition cannot be separated from my work.
The form we occupy today as human beings is only transient and our desperate efforts to halt the process………. A reluctance to accept our own mortality?
The environmental artwork at Spurn relates to the stark environment, the groynes, the lighthouse, movement, the disintegration and destruction, the ebb and flow, the organic nature of the space, a homage to the creative force Spurn evokes in me.
The items were all gathered from one particular stretch of coastline, Spurn Head in East Yorkshire, a fast eroding and disappearing peninsular.
Martin Waters
An Exhibition of Photographs
I have chosen to include three areas of my photographic work, coastal landscapes, found objects and images of artwork, all discovered or created on Spurn Point.
Landscapes
The landscapes try to portray some of the atmosphere of Spurn as I feel it, cold and barren at times, warm and inviting at others. The ever-changing light and weather tell very different stories.
Found Objects
Found objects fascinate me and form the basis of my collage and assemblage art. The variety and quantity of detritus I find help me to create something new, their colour and appearance often changed by contact with sea and sand only serve to enhance the image, rekindling life and meaning to a disgarded object.
Beach Art
The beach art is a direct response to the environment within which I am working. Spirals, wave forms and realistic imagery have suggested the artwork, together with my thoughts on life’s cycle, resulting in the finished piece.
These show part of the process of how I think about and create my artwork. It is important for me not to impose on the landscape, but to try and harmonise with it. The process of change, growth and decay at Spurn Point is witnessed and recorded in the photographs, capturing fleeting moments in the passage of time. The semi-permanent land art forms echoing the fragile briefness of life and the changing landscape that for me is Spurn Point
Martin Waters
Artist in Residence at Spurn Point Lighthouse
CV
Born 1955, In Hull, East Yorkshire
Educated At Hull College Of Art, Then At St. Albans College Of Art & Design, Gaining A Post Graduate Diploma In Art Therapy.
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO SHOWS
- 1990 BEVERLEY ART GALLERY
- 1992 BAYSGARTH HOUSE MUSEUM, BARTON ON HUMBER
- 1992 PANNETT ART GALLERY, WHITBY
- 1992 THE MERCER GALLERY, HARROGATE
- 1995 ROOM.58, THE SOBRIETY PROJECT, HULL
- 1998 ROOM.58, GOOLE
- 2001 ROOM.58, GOOLE
- 2003 GOOLE ART GALLERY
- 2003 HEDON MUSEUM
- 2004 SEWERBY HALL
- 2007 DEAN CLOUGH GALLERY, HALIFAX
- 2007 Assemblages, SPURN HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
- 2007 Photographs, SPURN HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
- 2007 20-21 VISUAL ARTS CENTRE, SCUNTHORPE. Outside Installations.
- 2008 SEWERBY HALL
- 2008 THE DEEP , HULL. ( Rehung with new work, continues in 2010, 2011)
- 2009 THE POINT, VISUAL ART CENTRE, DONCASTER
- 2009 20-21 VISUAL ARTS CENTRE, SCUNTHORPE. Assemblages
- 2009 HAWORTH ART GALLERY, ACCRINGTON
- 2009 Lost Property, BEVERLEY ART GALLERY
- 2010 Word works, THE DEEP, Hull
- 2010 Word works, FERENS ART GALLERY, Hull
- 2010 Assemblages, CASTLE PARK ARTS CENTRE, Cheshire
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
- 2002 “NINE”. BEVERLEY ART GALLERY.
- 2003 THE CHINK IN THE WALL GALLERY, DEEPDALE, LINCS
- 2004 “SCULPTURE”, CRESENT ART GALLERY, SCARBOROUGH
- 2004 ART LINK GALLERY, HULL. Jan22-March3
- 2004 Fantastic Plastics, “20 21” ARTS CENTRE, SCUNTHORPE
- 2004 THE DEAN CLOUGH, HALIFAX, Christmas show.
- 2005 KINGSWOOD GALLERY, HULL
- 2005 JELLY LEG’D CHICKEN GALLERY, READING
- 2006 Beneath the Surface. BEVERLEY ART GALLERY.
- 2007 HULL UNIVERSITY, Hull Arts Circle
- 2007 HAMMONDS, House of Fraser Windows
- 2008 ARTLINK, Hull. Mens Work
- 2009 TRITON GALLERY, SLEDMERE
- 2009 MiniPrint, ARTLINK, Hull
- 2010 Kingston Art Group, HULL COLLEGE
AWARDS / POSITIONS / EVENTS
- 2004 The Dennis Booth Cup
- 2005 The Beaulah Trophy for Sculpture
- 2007 Artist in Residence Spurn National Nature Reserve. (1 Year)
- 2007 Ilkley Literature Festival, fringe event
- 2009 Community artist for Arts in Health, Hull NHS trust
- 2010 The Vincent Galloway Portrait Cup
COMMISSIONS / COLLECTIONS
- 2010 Humber Mouth Literature Festival, Word works, Hull.
COLLECTION
- R & A Miles, London.
- B M Tiffney, N. Yorkshire.