Jake Harvey RSA lives and works at Maxton Cross in the Scottish Borders. Harvey studied sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) from 1966 to 1972 and went on to become the Head of School of Sculpture for eleven years. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Sculpture at ECA.
A life-long experience of living and working in Scotland, and the meditative aspect of fishing inform Harvey’s approach to sculpture at a profound level. Extensive visits to museums, archaeological and architectural sites around the world to record the traces of humans through drawing and photography, are the information-gathering process and primary touchstones for his practice.
Jake Harvey RSA: I am a sculptor of elemental works, imbued with stillness, sense-stimulus and a Zen-like simplicity. I work predominantly with earth-related materials including cast iron, though it is stone, the matrix of our planet, which is my preferred medium. I carve granite, basalt, marble and limestone, often placing or attaching the simple abstract forms directly on the wall or floor, or sometimes on shaped bases. Increasingly intrigued by the relationship of man to the earth and enthralled by the shaping of earth by man and vice versa, my sculptures retain the indexical mark of the maker and often imply an indeterminate use or function.