Assemblage

Hilary Bryanston

I don't forage the countryside for raw material - it seems to find me.

I carry choice pieces for miles sometimes, whilst on a walk.

People abandon cars and set light to them - half melted things can be found lying around.

Raw material accumulates in drawers and boxes in my studio, or around the back of the shed. Ideas often spark when I attempt to tidy it up. When I rummage, objects that I ha forgotten resurface. As I start to consider why I am saving this or that, I juxtapose one thing against another.

The poetry of assemblage starts all over again.



Hilary Bryanston - Artist Statement





1910 - Assemblage
229 cms long x 120 cms high x 48 cms deep



The Time Traveller




Detail from The Time Traveller, assemblage by Hilary Bryanston


A friend once asked me to help renovate her overgrown garden. I dug up a cuckoo clock. The wooden parts had disintegrated, but some of the figures remained. One of them became 'The Time Traveller'




Assemblage Gallery




From The Old Religions to the New - assemblage by Hilary Bryanston
37 wide x 26 deep x 28 high





The Gun, the Shoe and the Teeth - assemblage by Hilary Bryanston.
Base 23 x 24 x 12 X 47 cms high





Raise a Glass to the Tree of the Unborn Children




Raise a Glass to the Tree of the Unborn Children - Hilary Bryanston
45 cm long, 21 cm wide, 39 cm high


This piece originated from an exhibition hosted by Pontardawe Heritage Centre to commemorate D Day in 2019.

I had saved the root of an old apple tree. I turned it upside down to resemble a tangled tree and anchored it into a thick slave if pine.

The little pewter moels of figures in mediaeval dress supply a historic timeline.

The necklace of hand-made beads is on one hand a referene to the days of slave trading. The beads also refer to a gift never received from a dead soldier to his sweetheart.

The pebbles are significant because they would be thrown onto the grave in a Jewish cemetery. The other natural object, the feather, symbolises the fragility of life.