from the 7 CARDIFF SCULPTORS catalogue
Most of my work over the past two years has been designed to be constructed on a large scale although elements of the work could exist in smaller units. The basis of each construction has always been a large number of somewhat regimented, interchangeable units which only assume identity when the need arises to set up or reconstitute the work. By placing the work directly on to the floor at a low level it is likely to make the spectator aware of both gravity and fragility as conditions of sculpture and at the same time, engage him in the recognition of the floor as a zone for existence.
Some of the processes I employ to make my constructions are very much to do with the history of painting, sculpture and architecture and I openly acknowledge in my work an affinity to a whole range of influences.
The materials I use are very often as traditional as plaster, oil, pigment, water, paper, charcoal, canvas, wood etc. By respecting not only the inherent properties of these materials, but also the given situations of specific environments, have I been able to elicit final cohesive statements which have meaning in both one particular piece of sculpture and within the history of the development of a whole range of sculptures over a considerable period of time.
Although my references are very wide and often complex in the end the work is intended to be resolutely concrete and aspires to document no other condition other than its own existence.
David Shepherd 
