Henry Piper

Exhibition 2nd July – 2nd August 2014

Henry Piper

A life-sized cAlf stands squarely in the yard outside Henry Piper’s Somerset workshop. Constructed from items of scrap metal, it flaunts a Gestetner label on its right haunch, a clue to its ingredient parts. Another assemblage of junk metal has found new life as one of Henry Piper’s creatures. Recognisably human, animal, reptile or bird, these creatures jauntily display their new identities over the ghosts of the old. An inanimate reincarnation has taken place.

Where other people see junk, Henry Piper sees personality. Faces, and the expressions on faces, are an important part of his repertoire. Heads of coiled wire cast eloquent shadows. A sewing machine handle raises questioning eyebrows. A hay fork gives a solemn stare. A multitude of humanoid and animaloid characters emerge from the vast jumble of metal pieces strewn across his workshop floor. For Piper, piecing the bits together is partly a subconscious process. While he may be looking around for one part, another object sets him off in a different direction. He begins his assemblages with a deliberately vague idea, allowing the work to develop freely, going with the flow in an effort to bring out the creature inside. A lifelong observation of living creatures informs the work, so that the waddle of a duck, the stance of a pecking bird, or the gait of a teenage girl are presented with precise mimicry. As he says, each sculpture ‘gets to the point where it is no longer a bunch of bits but is either a recognisable thing or something that is more beautiful

than the sum of its parts. These are not really found objects, they are more accumulations.’

Henry Piper is fascinated by discarded materials, particularly metals, and he enjoys the challenge of locking diverse components together. Different metals require different solutions to the problems of cutting, soldering or welding. His fascination is tempered by dismay at the amount of stuff that people throw away, and making something new out of junked material is part of his private crusade against waste. ‘The world creates so much junk. It drives me crazy - something should be done about it. My work is all about turning something useless into something useful.’ There is no question in his mind that art is useful, its function being to provoke, to amuse, and, above all, to cheer.

As the son and grandson of painters, Henry Piper grew up surrounded by art. From early boyhood he collected bits and pieces which accumulated to become a Museum of Stuff. While still at school he determined to be a sculptor, even persuading his school to allow him to do Sculpture at A level. Excellent results strengthened his resolve, and he regarded his subsequent time at the University of Sussex, studying Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences, simply as an enriching interlude that helped to give an extra edge to his work. The study of Artificial Intelligence deepened his understanding of perception, while Philosophy stressed the importance of pointlessness. Other influences also fed into his sculpture: the idiosyncratic work of Alexander Calder, a family friend of his grandparents John and Myfanwy Piper, and the paintings of Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. He also became aware, during the late 1980s, of the techno-industrial sculpture of Joe Rush, founder of the Mutoid Waste Company and builder of the ‘Car Henge’ at Glastonbury, although the ominous quality of Rush’s installations carried a very different message from Piper’s upbeat and playful sculptural creations.

After several years living and working ‘on the road’ in a converted fire engine, Henry Piper is now back in Somerset, filling his time in true Piper fashion with a variety of demanding pursuits. While sculpture is his main occupation, he farms the family smallholding and breeds a flock of sheep. Like his father and grandfather

before him, he is a fireworks expert, working as part of a team on major displays – work which has taken him as far afield as Doha and Abu Dhabi. He is also an integral part of a five-piece band in which he plays the saxophone. He regards music and art as two sides of the same thing, especially when it comes to improvisation. ‘In music you have the strictness of the tune and you can do what you like within the bounds of the chord structure. Using those restrictions you allow yourself the freedom to improvise.’ The material Piper uses limits the things he can do with them in a similar way, but within these restrictions there is room for improvisation. Freedom to improvise is vital to his creative process. ‘It’s to do with the ephemeral quality. You don’t want to think about it too much or it might disappear. It’s just the same in music. As soon as you start thinking, you are out of the zone. You have to be lost within it.’

Many of Henry Piper’s sculptures are visual puns, in which the component parts suggest different layers of meaning. It is their extemporary nature and their tactile quality that give his creatures their lively eccentricity. While casting them in bronze might ensure their longevity, it would greatly diminish the sense of touch, the sense of the maker’s hand. The wit and imaginative inventiveness of Piper’s work is intrinsic in his manipulation of the materials he chooses.

Jenny Pery 2014Author and Art Historian

front cover 1 Black-Headed Spring Beast bed springs, sofa springs, bed knob, photographic enlarger shade, washing machine drum, brass tube and slices of hydraulic arm 79 x 120 x 38 cms 311⁄8 x 471⁄4 x 15 ins

2 Funny Fish steel 13 x 20 x 3 cms

51⁄8 x 77⁄8 x 11⁄8 ins

5 Long Trunk a vice and sewing

machine parts 15 x 25 x 10 cms

57⁄8 x 97⁄8 x 37⁄8 ins

7 Scuba sewing machine,

piston liner, brake and clutch pedals, handle, copper pipe

41 x 51 x 28 cms 161⁄8 x 201⁄8 x 11 ins

3 Yellow Burner Bug gas burner, gas

bottle, alternator diode assembly, door catch, window stay, bed springs and a rivet and washers

37 x 24 x 31 cms 145⁄8 x 91⁄2 x 121⁄4 ins

6 Receiving Device piston, lamp shade,

insulator, cupro-nickel tube, etc

47 x 19 x 19 cms 181⁄2 x 71⁄2 x 71⁄2 ins

4 Showy Bird knives, soldering gun

innards, drum brush, aluminium catch, bearing race, copper pipe and connectors, brass eyelet, copper wire and a bit of car bonnet

34 x 34 x 14 cms 133⁄8 x 133⁄8 x 51⁄2 ins

9 Brassheaded Flowertail

part of gate valve, pyro-copper cable, brake slave cylinder, brake pipe, tape guides and car radiator

60 x 48 x 20 cms 235⁄8 x 187⁄8 x 77⁄8 ins

10 Sash Chain Cat sash chain, copper

wire, copper and brass sheet and two marbles

18 x 45 x 7 cms 71⁄8 x 173⁄4 x 23⁄8 ins

11 Coffee Bug the base of a coffee

pot, a cylinder head, valves and springs, a fuel pump, copper wire, brass sheet and thermostat valves

28 x 44 x 16 cms 11 x 173⁄8 x 61⁄4 ins

8 Andy a shovel, cogs,

a harness and other farming parts

163 x 46 x 50 cms 641⁄8 x 181⁄8 x 195⁄8 ins

15 Soldering Bird motor windings, a

soldering iron, a crank, the lid of an oil lamp and a lamp shade

43 x 38 x 14 cms 167⁄8 x 15 x 51⁄2 ins

12 Hummy Bird a lever, a cymbal and

an oil jet 3 x 11 x 10 cms

11⁄8 x 43⁄8 x 37⁄8 ins

13 Space Person rail clamp, bicycle

crank, crank case, printer roller, car door handles and steel sheet

47 x 14 x 22 cms 181⁄2 x 51⁄2 x 85⁄8 ins

14 Copper Floppy copper tube, sheet

and watering can rose

24 x 7 x 11 cms 91⁄2 x 23⁄4 x 43⁄8 ins

16 Millipede plate rack,

reinforcing bar, piston, cable and executive toy

23 x 135 x 21 cms 9 x 531⁄8 x 81⁄4 ins

17 Wiggly Face copper bar,

immersion heater 69 x 38 x 9 cms

271⁄8 x 15 x 31⁄2 ins

18 Copier Calf printer casing, grain

shoot and beads 93 x 160 x 50 cms

365⁄8 x 63 x 195⁄8 ins