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Jon Isherwood, born in 1960 in England, resides in US now. He used to study in Leeds College of Art, Leeds, England, and later got his B.A. with honors, Canterbury College of Art, Canterbury, England, M.F.A. Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, University of New York at Plattsburgh.
When he was studying at a middle school in Britain, he was eager to be an artist like Henry Moore. But later he assisted Anthony Caro, the heavy metal master, for 15 years, traveled around the world and finally settled down in the United States. To escape the influence of Anthony Caro, he began working with concrete and stone, which was probably due to his fondness of Henry Moore. In early 1980s, after the success of his first exhibition in the United States, Isherwood became a professional sculptor. Plain and simple, Isherwood is fascinated with the expression and feeling that clay provides as it is shaped by the hand. First he makes a clay form, the rotation of which reminds us of turned pottery. This makes Isherwood’s sculptures different from the pure Abstract Expressionism of Bruce Beasley and Kenneth Snelson while being more closely related with traditional handicraft. Then he scans the clay forms into the computer and transforms it into a digital model in virtual space. Attached planes or embossed continuous patterns (e.g. water waves or incised lines) by 3DMAX to the surface of the model, and the plane patterns will automatically vary in density on the surface. The sculpture thus becomes a combination of random manual form and digital accuracy, expressing the sensibility of life fused with the rationality of technology, traditional handicraft fused with digital information.
His sculptures are intimate, intellectual, with a mysterious emptiness embedded, and the ancient and the modern confronting one another. His sculpture “Fish Out of Water” has been permenanct collected by National Art Museum of China.
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ARTIST STATEMENT:
China is a fascinating blend of the ancient and the modern. It was therefore a particularly appropriate place to find inspiration for my sculpture, in which cutting edge digital technology is used to make sculptures made of stone, the oldest, most resilient and unforgiving of materials.
I used the computer to take a traditional Chinese calligraphic patterns and imagery and overlay it with an abstract geometric pattern of my own design—another collision of the ancient and the modern. I then superimposed these merged ideas and patterns onto a form, which became the sculpture “Fish Out of Water.”
My travels through China in conjunction with making work in China and exhibiting in China were a main source of inspiration for the pieces I created, which are not a series, but rather four distinct responses to what I saw and absorbed. At the Dazu rock carvings, for example, I discovered an overwhelming experience of pattern and imagery bursting forward from the rock surface in high relief, surging forward in terms of dimension and yet still very attached to the earth. The issue of repetition and pattern and the aesthetic proportioning of the objects that led to a face-on frontal address from a sculpture were striking, and led to some of my sculptural explorations in pattern and form for this exhibition.
乔恩·伊舍伍德 (Jon Isherwood) 1960年生于英国，现居美国。曾就读于英格兰利兹艺术设计学院 (Leeds College of Art, 并获得英格兰坎特伯里艺术学院学士学位, 后获得美国纽约锡拉丘兹大学艺术硕士学位和纽约大学艺术荣誉博 士学位。当他还在英国读中学的时候, 就十分崇拜艺术家亨利·摩尔 (Henry Moore)。但命运却让他成为铁艺大师安 东尼·卡罗 (Anthony Caro) 的助手。在长达15年的助理工作中, 他跟随安东尼, 足迹遍布世界各地。最终, 他选择了 在美国定居。也许是刻意避开安东尼·卡罗(Anthony Caro) 的作品风格, 也许是对偶像亨利·摩尔的崇拜, 乔恩选择 了石膏和石材作为创作的对象。上个世纪80年代初期, 乔恩的作品在美国首展就一举获得成功, 由此, 开始了他的职 业雕塑家生涯。乔恩的风格简单、朴素, 他执迷于手工雕塑泥土的表现手法和艺术感受。先用泥土进行塑造, 于是泥 坯那种旋转和围裹的形态令人联想到陶艺。这也使得他的作品不同于布鲁斯·比斯利 (Bruce Beasley) 和肯尼斯·斯内 尔 (Kenneth Snelson) 那种纯粹的抽象表现主义风格, 而是更亲近传统的手工艺风格。随后, 他将手工风格的泥土造型 逐一扫描进电脑并将其变成虚拟空间中的数码模型。把这个成型的泥塑用三维扫描仪扫描到电脑中, 转换成为一个虚 拟空间中的数码模型。再在电脑中把某种平面的或浅浮雕的连续图案(如水波纹或曲线纹路)用3DMAX包裹在模型的表 面。平面的图案会自动随着模型的表面呈现出疏密变化。至此, 看似漫不经心的手工陶艺作品般的雕塑艺术品, 融入 了数码科技的精准, 从一个层面表达出了人生的感受力和科技理性的交集, 以及传统的手工艺术与数码信息的交融。 他的作品有一种亲密的气质、知性、而且镶嵌有神秘虚无主义的影子, 古典与现代的针锋相对。他的雕塑作品出“出
水之鱼” (Fish Out of Water). 于2008年被中国美术馆永久收藏。
艺术家的话：
中国是一个迷人的国度,兼具古典与现代美。于是, 这里就成了启发我雕塑创作灵感的地方, 而数码科技则在创作手段 上能够实现在石材—这一最老、最坚固也是最无情的材料上创作的可能。
我用电脑采集中国古代书法字体, 然后在它的基础上自由创作成为抽象的几何图形 — 另外一个古典与现代的结合。然 后, 将其叠加成一个形状，就成了“出水之鱼” (Fish Out of Water) 这个雕塑。
我曾在中国采风, 也顺便进行雕塑制作和参展。中国之行成为了我的灵感之源。我创作了4件独立的作品(而非系列作 品) 以体现我在中国的见闻和感受。在我考察的作品中, 大足石刻尤其令人惊叹：岩石表面的图案和肖像采用高浮雕方 式雕刻，既体现了生动的三维形象, 又与大地融为一体。这些正向石雕作品与观者对面而立, 对于原型的真实再现、所 采用的图案和美学价值给人以强烈的震撼, 也激发了我在参展作品中尝试一些图案和造型。
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