Doug Cocker: Works on Paper

'Now, some years on, I find myself interminably attached to a working methodology which offers a speed of outcome and a spontaneity seldom available in the making of sculpture: it has the potential for a directness of expression using colour, shape, texture and placement without the dust, grind and technical restriction to which I have become accustomed. (Albeit the outcome is image rather than object.)

'The works in this exhibition reflect an aesthetic commonly pursued in my approach to object making. They all relate to sculpture in some way. However, in seeking, confronting, utilising and usually butchering images from elsewhere, collage has also offered me a new potential for the use of narrative.

'Alongside the formal qualities of the works on show here, the accessibility of the medium has encouraged me to address ideas which have a quite different kind of narrative balance: Call of the Wild, Theatre of Fish, The Book of Common Prayer and A Short History of Power are bodies of imagery which, though complete, have yet to find a platform for public scrutiny. Maybe later?'