Lae Oldmeadow Exhibition

Lae Oldmeadow Fri 25 March "“ Mon 18 April 2016

Lae Oldmeadow has been described as an environmental artist and the title sits well with him as he has spent the last two decades living sustainably and creating art in harmony with the natural world. Lae's assemblages, 'canopies' and 'soft sculptures', made reverently from totally organic materials, have a humanising effect. Unlike the optical noise of the constructed, urban environment- where images are quickly glimpsed and passed over- Lae's works resonate a slow, rhythmic pulse and we respond instinctually. In them we can sense the energy of Nature with its cycles of growth and decay "“ its ceaseless renewal and infinite complexity of form.

These works convey a powerful sense of being in the presence of our ancestors; the presence of an ancient tree, for some of the bark comes from trees which have lived hundreds of years, witness to the change in earth's ecology, to the implicit changes deriving from the earth mother herself but more alarmingly to the rapid changes generated through man's activities on the planet, to loss and destruction.

There is a technical brilliance in the work, a fluid connection to the natural materials, to the forest. Lae's work is both disturbing and enticing; a sense of the sacred and the source. Familiar with the esoteric traditions Lae references the essence of Zen Buddhism, often represented by a calligraphic circle emblematic of nothingness, for what else do these works represent? They defy labels, are non representational yet familiar, they probe the deeper levels of Being.