Harry Chadwick
Harry Chadwick is a sculptural artist working predominantly in metal and glass. He welds, folds, and forms metal into sculptural pieces encapsulating glass, be it sheet, blown or cast. He is inspired by anything that comes into his field of vision, from the natural world or the manmade that surrounds him as he walks through life. Everything he makes invariably inspires the next piece. His works are often produced to pose a question, sometimes serious, sometimes less so, from the viewer. He always endeavours to bring people together through conversation.
Since graduating, he has been Runner Up in the Contemporary Glass Society's New Graduate Review with his piece from the Pop Futurism series ‘Orange Maul’. He also received the Glass Sellers Student Award at the 2022 British Glass Biennale for his cast glass piece ‘The Drowning of Handcraft’.
'The Drowning of Handcraft' depicts the rise of the digital within crafts; how once commonplace items of the craftsman are lost to the passing of time; whilst we can see them, we cannot reach them as they become submerged by the rising tide of technology. The piece is made from two cast glass pieces sat atop of each other, with the glass anvil reflected in the piece beneath, as if floating on water.
Harry’s Pop Futurism sculptures draw inspiration from Futurism and Pop Art, and reference his former career as an engineer, welder and fabricator. The familiar silhouettes of commonplace tools that he would use in the workshop are cut from steel and powder coated with bright colours, harking back to the brightly coloured images of the Pop Art Movement of the 1950s. Contained within these tough outer shells is sheet glass, each layer resonating upwards from an invisible action. The maker's choice of such familiar objects tempts handling, whilst the fragility of the glass dictates that we should not touch and must instead suspend disbelief to imagine the impact and meeting of materials when the tools are put to use.
IG: @harry_chadwick_art
WEB: harrychadwickart.co.uk
