David Nash at Kew - browse the art works

New works at the Wood Quarry

Nash created new sculptures at the Wood Quarry over the spring and summer of 2012. In this outdoor studio, his first in public view, he used chainsaws to carve wood from Kew trees that had come to the end of their natural lives, making them into works of art. Much of the work made there is now on display at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, but some large pieces remain.

Three Butts

Nash sourced these three enormous pieces of eucalyptus in California.

Three Humps

Nash says of this work, ‘often, in the general maintaining and clearing up of my carving yard, pieces of wood come together by chance and suggest, even demand, to be carved as a group. Three Humps is such a piece.’

Three Iron Humps

The iron humps that make up this work were originally sample pieces for Iron Dome - shown at Kew near the Main Gate. However, when Nash saw them alongside one another in the foundry, he realised that they made a 'family' and a sculpture in their own right.

Three Iron Humps

The iron humps that make up this work were originally sample pieces for Iron Dome – shown in the Gardens near Main Gate. However, when Nash saw them alongside one another in the foundry, he realised that they made a family and a sculpture in their own right.

Throne

Throne was originally made for the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield, where it was displayed in the gallery’s high-ceilinged apse. This gave Nash the opportunity to exploit a vertical space, which he has also been able to do here in the Temperate House.

Two Clams

Part of David Nash 2012

Two rings of oak of different volumes - both carved from the centre curving down to the edge.

Two Falling Spoons

Nash first sculpted spoons in 1998, inspired by the refectory at Tournus Abbey in France, where he was staging an exhibition. He has continued to explore this form since, especially when the truck and branches of a tree suggest this shape. This bronze was cast from an original made of charred oak.

Two Sliced Cedars

Two Sliced Cedars is carved so that each piece is animated in dialogue with the other.

Wooden Boulder

Wooden Boulder is both a sculptural work, and the story of its journey downhill, by river, into the Irish Sea. Watch the film and follow the journey of this work in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art.