Sam Copsey
Hommage to Barbara
A sculptor and maker from Somerset who studied Fine Art in Bristol, Sam Copsey has been living and making in and around Bristol and Somerset for the last 15 years. He discovered whilst at the University of West of England the "Tech Lab" workshop as part of the fabrication department which specialised in teaching programming, mechanisms and interactive art, and he ended up spending most of the three years of his degree there. Since graduating he has continued to make mechanical sculptures and contraptions, most of the time from repurposed materials and found objects.
The majority of his practice consists of mechanised movements and humorous happenings. Technology and machines are notoriously built for development and progress; his work satirises this idea of progress; the wheels, gears and chains of his machines allude to some practical, productive process, yet their appearance is misleading; anticipated mechanised functions result in a dysfunctional, often comical perpetual loop, teasing at the premise of what a machine is for.
He says: “I find great pleasure in combining and composing found objects; when they fit together perfectly it is as if they were waiting for that moment; their history and context add another layer to my work. I explore the interplay of objects, creating new relationships and tensions; (looking for) the precise moment of something fitting into or falling out of place.”
Bristol