Booth collected off-cuts of ash, beech and birch ply from a furniture factory in Hastings, collecting pieces which retained the traces of colour used by timber manufactures to protect the end grain and identify the wood. Ash invariably came in shades of green. Booth arranges the off-cuts according to shape, colour and type, using thousands of individual blocks to assemble sculptures and site-responsive installations.
Ash series: I (2008) is one of several, early wall-based pieces that contrast the rugged simplicity of the found wooden forms with a highly-finished, geometric minimalism. These pieces reflect an ongoing interest in early Modernist Architecture and Arte Povera. They also reference architects’ models, the theories of early educational pioneer Friederich Froebel, who invented the Kindergarten and proved a key influence on architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Mondrian and the Bauhaus movement and the ubiquitous play bricks of childhood.
Colin Booth
Ash series: I
2008
Ash off-cuts, mdf, cellulose paint
Dimensions Variable
Courtesy of the artist
