Artist talk to accompany exhibition (installation and sculptural works).
Chapter Three "The Story of the Hammer", by Martin Crawford
Nomas* Projects, May 2021
Statement
Martin Crawford’s work explores our connections to each other through the objects we encounter, and questions traditional anthropocentric ontology in favour of a more egalitarian view of matter. He draws out abstract narratives from things, materials and places, to remind us of our profound connections to each other and our environment. Working intuitively to access the dormant pasts of objects and materials from junkyards, donations and scavenging, and by using processes such as destruction, remaking, metamorphosis, embellishment and combination; Crawford works in a form of bricolage, creating states in which the imagination can deeply connect with the objects and the matter that forms them.
The works magnify the powerful sensation generated by commonality in the objects, and flit between abstraction, storytelling, memory and imagination. Standing apart from linguistic explanation, they are experienced intuitively: finding a space where every imaginable past of object and viewer can exist simultaneously. Here the viewer can reflect on their own object identity, and in seeing that their story is unlike any other, they can also see that it is the same as every other.
Bio
Martin studied English Literature at St. Andrews and Glasgow Universities, before completing his teacher training and working as an English teacher and head of department in schools in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. His undergraduate dissertation in Surrealist poetry sparked a love of art that grew to the point it could not be ignored, and he returned to University to study for a BA in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee.
Artist's Website
