Sam Sherborne - label information
Softening the blow: Stories told with fire and steel
Exhibition by Sam Sherborne, artist blacksmith, Cooper Prize Winner 2023
“Sculpture Narratives”
Sadler Room, Display Case
All images credit: Sam Walker
I’m pretty sure that wasn’t there before, 2019
When is a lump something to worry about!
A unit of humanity, 2018
This is a unit of storytelling. I use these figures to tell stories.
Wounded leader, 2017
The sculpture concerns how those leading the country are often the most damaged having been sent away to boarding school at a young age. We put those in charge who are entitled, incapable of empathy, only loyal to their own kind, brittle (apparently strong but easily snapped) and cut off from their feelings. Our political predicament, with appalling politicians, is more comprehensible to me if I try and understand why they behave as they do.
If it wasn’t for my woman, I believe I’d lose my mind, 2022
This title is borrowed from a blues song by Kingfish. The sculpture celebrates my long-term relationship and its mutual support. I like the raw emotional truth of the blues lyrics.
Argument, 2019
It’s obvious what this one is about!
Awesome wave, 2017
This sculpture shows how at one point in the past I was having a series of major life-events. No sooner had one finished than the next would roll in. I found myself crouching, waiting for the next challenge the world was going to throw at me. Awesome wave is also the title of one of my favourite albums by alt-J.
Sympathy for the sounding board, 2018
Feeling sorry for the person who had to listen to my tales of woe!
In two minds, 2019
The sculpture plays with the old adage that two minds are better than one when addressing a problem. There is the potential for new perspectives and to challenge previously accepted ideas that have taken on the status of immutable truths. The process can be scary with the ground seeming to move and relates to my experience of 'the talking cure'.
Kicked into the long grass, 2020
This sculpture shows how I felt after prostate surgery, sitting in bed for a few weeks, feeling physically uncomfortable and largely forgotten by the world. My phone was broken, and the local NHS healthcare professionals were beginning to be faced with the Covid pandemic. Luckily, Prostate Cancer UK were a lifeline.
Sketchbook
A fairly random choice of page showing some ideas that might end up as sculptures but probably won’t. My best drawing is done very early, sometimes even 4 in the morning, when I feel I have the world to myself. It also helps to have an empty stomach and plenty of coffee. If there is treasure it is more in the idea than the quality of the drawing. The secret for me is to keep the rawness, freshness and spontaneity of the drawing in the metalwork. Ironically you need precision for this!