from the " ON THE RIGHT SCENT " review
David Shepherd’s work is certainly initially difficult and daunting but the amount of work and thought that has clearly gone into the pieces which practically fill the gallery consist of open and closed cubic wooden structures, massive in presence and startlingly covered in black bitumen - the smell of which adds literally to the atmosphere surrounding the work. Shepherd is a “ gallery ” sculptor
in that these works were assembled especially for this exhibition and will be
dismantled when it ends.
This is an oddly disconcerting thing for a sculptor to be doing. A degree of
permanence is something which is automatically associated with most three-dimensional
work. But the nature of Shepherd’s constructions points to a cycle of decay
and recreation to which the form of his work gives a clue. People were walking
around the exhibition with puzzled glances and the odd baffled comment before
leaving. I felt that many of those people would probably not argue the visual
merits of old mine surface workings, decaying blackened piers or the fantastic
jumble of the wood yard or the demolition site. Shepherd is clearly not involved
in the simplistic exercise of reproduction of scenes. However, the aesthetic
features of his work are readily to be echoed in the daily life and are readily
appreciated as such and the formal qualities of his main preoccupation is with
the linear. The tactile quality of his work is very attractive.
He worked furiously at great speed for some days perfecting the Installations
on the gallery. Photographs of the process were on show but with video so widespread
I felt it might have been worthwhile to have made a film of an artist creating
such a unique piece of work.
Gerry Thurston