James Castle: First Light

The work in this exhibition has a theme running through it, which has been common to most of my work for years, where the conscious and subconscious worlds intermingle; where the imagination and memories of actual events or places cross over, and where any of these elements have the potential to become ingredients that come together to make a sculpture.

The times of day when these elements seem to be at their most vivid is at daybreak and at dusk, often when we are coming out of sleep or going into it. We can experience strong feelings such as alarm, relief or pleasure as we awake and our minds adjust to conscious reality. Dreams, good and bad can exemplify this state of mind. This explains to some degree the surreal nature of the work, where the lines between the real and the unreal disappear into sculptures that always have a degree of chance embodied in them, as in a game of chess or draughts, and where formal and structural concerns are central to the organisation of the forms. There is usually a narrative, but that narrative could be as seemingly elusive as a piece of music by Eric Satie.