Woking Writers Circle

A welcoming writing community where we share words and grow together and where creativity, feedback and encouragement come together

Category: Sculpture

  • Meet the new Sean Henry sculptures arriving in Woking

    Meet the new Sean Henry sculptures arriving in Woking

    by Greg Freeman

    Sculptor Sean Henry has revealed the identities of his three new figures that are coming to Woking town centre. ‘Walking Woman’, above, clad in black, will stride down Commercial Way, while ‘Standing Figure (Man)’ and ‘Standing Figure (Woman)’, top, will stare at each other within an atrium at the new Victoria Square development.

    The news came during a hugely interesting tour around Sean’s studio during a Zoom session organised by The Lightbox art gallery in Woking. Talking about ‘Walking Woman’ he said: “There’s an air of positivity about her. She has this inner confidence; I hope that comes through.”

    ‘Standing Figure (Man)’ and ‘Standing Figure (Woman)’ will be seven feet tall, and will look at each other in the main atrium space of Victoria Square when it is completed. Sean said: “I’m excited by this … it will be a meeting place … I’m hoping that this will bring a lot of people into Woking.”    

    A further piece, ‘Catafalque’, is returning to Woking after first appearing in Jubilee Square in 2017 during a town-wide exhibition of Sean Henry’s work organised by the Lightbox, and also spending some time outside Salisbury cathedral: “He’s very, very non-confrontational, because he’s looking at the sky.”  

    Sean Henry is always claimed as a Woking boy, although he actually grew up in Pirbright, and now lives in Hampshire. He started making little clay figures at school at the age of 14, and sold some from a stall in Guildford High Street. He received a D in Art A-level, but secured a foundation degree place at Farnham School of Art, before taking a BA in ceramics at Bristol Polytechnic from 1984 to 1987.

    He is remarkably open and accessible, and during his Lightbox talk he expanded on his beliefs, saying that for him “colour and light is what sculpture is about. I’m trying to reference life, and colour is an integral part of that”. He wanted his sculptures to relate to “the lived experience”. 

    Sean, whose works are displayed all over the world, spoke about a couple of his other sculptures in striking situations in England –  the 10-foot ‘Seated Figure’ on the North York Moors (“it takes on a life of its own, depending on the weather”) and ‘Couple’, on the shore and out at sea at Newbiggin in Northumberland, “ a really unusual project” concerned with coastal erosion and a new £10m breakwater on which the Arts Council wanted a sculpture placed.

    Painted sculptures outdoors that have to endure all weathers present a certain challenge. Sean has been using a marine paint usually employed for protecting boats and buoys. “The challenge is keeping the paint very thin, because you want the sculpture to look as it did when it was just clay.” He aimed to dress his figures in “neutral” clothes, and dispensed with any accoutrements, such as handbags, trying to whittle things down “to the core of someone’s being”.

    His main influence is the 20th century Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. He also spoke of Ron Mueck’s famous work ‘Dead Dad’, of which he said “its altered scale is the key to its success, and to engaging our empathy”.   

    Sean Henry concluded his talk by saying how much he was looking forward to the completion of Woking’s Victoria Square development: “I can’t wait for it to be open and functioning.” He pointed out that Woking has the biggest Sean Henry collection in the world, “or will have by the end of this year”.

    Truly something to be proud of, to be mentioned in the same breath as the Martians and The Jam!

  • Greg Freeman’s poems about Sean Henry statues get thumbs-up from sculptor

    Greg Freeman’s poems about Sean Henry statues get thumbs-up from sculptor

    Sean Henry at work
    Sean Henry at work PHOTOGRAPH: BELLA HENRY

    A sequence of poems by WWC member Greg Freeman about four statues in Woking town centre by Woking-born Sean Henry has received a nod of approval from the sculptor.

    After completing his 64-line sequence about the statues, Greg sent it to Sean, and received this message back: “That is amazing – thank you so much. There is really nothing better than a creative response to art and I feel very honoured when anyone takes the sculptures as a starting point for a new creative endeavour. You have also accurately captured some of the thoughts that went into the works, as well as bringing in ideas of your own which feel somehow ‘right’.”

    Greg said: “I was bowled over to receive this very generous message from Sean. I have been an admirer of his work ever since the statues appeared in the town, and really believe they add something to Woking.”

    He added: “My poems represent a series of back-stories for the figures, as I see them.  Of course, everyone will view them differently. I’ve also added a new title since I sent them to Sean. ‘All The Lonely People’ comes from the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby. I hope he doesn’t mind too much!”

    The four Sean Henry statues in Woking are Woman (Being Looked At) at the entrance to the Peacocks shopping centre;  Standing Man in Jubilee Square; The Wanderer outside Woking rail station; and Seated Man, inside the station, on a seat on platform one.

    Originally five painted bronze sculptures by Sean Henry were installed in Woking town centre to coincide with his exhibition at the Lightbox art gallery in 2017 . The final cast of Catafalque (2003) will rejoin the Woking collection when the Victoria Square development is completed. You can watch a video of Sean Henry talking about his Lightbox exhibition here

    Sean Henry’s work includes private and public installations in many locations across Europe and the US. He studied at Farnham School of Art (now University for the Creative Arts) before taking a BA in ceramics at Bristol University. He has had more than 30 solo shows during his career. His work is regularly exhibited by galleries in London, New York, Stockholm, and Brussels, and his sculptures can be found in public collections in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany, US and elsewhere. His works include Walking Man in London’s Holland Park (1998) and Man with Potential Selves in the centre of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (2001). He completed the UK’s first permanent offshore sculpture, Couple, in 2007, a 13m high sculpture located 300 metres off the coast of Northumberland at Newbiggin. Other works include Standing Man in Stockholm (2010), and Lying Man at the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Michigan, US (2011). More recently Seated Figure, originally located within the North York Moors National Park (2017), has now been moved to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield.

    Sean Henry has described the theme of his work as “the tension between the making and staging of figures that seem to belong to the real world, and the degree to which they echo our experiences and sympathies”.

    Greg’s ‘All The Lonely People’ is an example of ekphrastic poetry, a verbal description of a visual work of art. You can read the full poem here 

    Greg Freeman co-runs a monthly poetry open-mic night at the Lightbox art gallery in Woking. His poetry pamphlet collection Trainspotters was published by Indigo Dreams in 2015.

    Greg and statue new best
    Greg Freeman and and Standing Man at Jubilee Square PHOTOGRAPH: GILLIAN FREEMAN