David Begbie Info

David Begbie discovered the particular properties of steel- and bronze mesh as an art student in 1977. Since then his work has been exhibited globally and has been an enormous inspiration to many people, including architects, designers, photographers, world of theatre and dance as well as to other artists. His work has been imitated and copied worldwide and since his first London Solo Show in 1984 a whole genre of steel-mesh art has emerged.

Wire mesh is transparent – 90% thin air, yet it has as a much greater physical presence than any conventional solid sculpture. Begbie’s skill, perception, understanding and imagination are succinctly and economically contained within the confines of the simple shell that constitutes his sculpture.

Since his graduation in 1982 David Begbie has worked almost exclusively with the human form, although has often produced abstract composition alongside the figurative sculpture. Primarily sculpting in steel and bronze mesh he also produces mono-prints, etchings, ink and charcoal drawings, mixed-media work and photographs, but it is for his distinctive wire-mesh sculpture that Begbie is most renowned.

The preoccupation with the human form as his subject has often been compared to Michelangelo and in particular to Rodin, as his subject is often that of the partial or truncated figure.

The real thrill of Begbie’s work is the experience of seeing it „in the flesh”, the sculpted bodies are powerful, erotic, tactile, and intimate. For the viewer this material adds intrigue yet is somehow familiar; when you first experience Begbie’s body sculptures you are curious to know how the perfection of form is achieved.

On looking further you become familiar with the properties of the medium - the wire mesh creates a liveliness and sense of movement that is further enhanced by the use of shadow projection with lighting.

Look again closely and you see that there is not even a skin, only a graphic delineation of one. In relation to the space it occupies, the catalytic effect a Begbie sculpture has, in any setting, given that it has no palpable substance or surface, is phenomenal.

Begbie says of his sculpture “each work is an entity which has a far greater physical presence than any solid object could possibly have because it has the power to suggest that it doesn’t exist.” You have to touch a Begbie to make sure it does.

The introduction of strategic lighting as an integral part of a particular composition has the most remarkable result where the combination of two and three dimensions, with the use of projected shadows, produces an optical fusion of image and object. It is from this phenomenon that Begbie developed his flat steel, bronze and brass sculptures which can be fabricated on demand - a fine art limited edition of 9 plus artist proofs. Begbie envisaged these works as existing and occupying a space between the three dimensional sculpture and the shadow itself, and in the process has created another new art form in two dimensions.

The limited edition sculptures (flat artwork) are a mixture of sculpture and photography: To produce one of the sculptures in flat steel panel, David must first have made a unique sculpture. Its photograph is then etched out of metal panel.

The portraits are even more of an amalgam of the two disciplines, with David using the mesh to hold the features together. This new art-form was developed in 2005 has enabled David to explore the potential of a single artwork, using colours and different formats to produce variations in mood and effect.

For David Begbie material is everything. The membrane-like wire mesh sheets that he uses provide the surface of the work; a well constructed exterior that has a far deeper resonance with the artist than that of mere appearance. What is of particular interest is the link that Begbie makes between music and the material that he adopts. He talks of the “universal language” of music, indeed the laws of melody and rhythms are the same, the world over, and find direct correlation between the function of music and that of the wire mesh. The mesh itself is, in essence, a grid of strings; for the artist they are reminiscent of the strings used in instruments. David Begbie talks of the way in which the mesh surfaces function as “optical vibrations”; in the way that music travels through sound waves, David Begbie’s works present a visual form of vibration. Oscillations and frequencies that make up the surface of the mesh bodies can now be understood as physical manifestations of the intangible world of vibrations.