Forest + Found | Max Bainbridge
Overview
Land Jar
"Bainbridge’s exploration of the living tree reflects a need to create a grounded presence though the physicality of the sculpted object in space"
UK based partnership between artists Max Bainbridge and Abigail Booth. Working across the visual arts and contemporary craft, they draw upon a background in painting and sculpture whilst looking towards a newly developed language of craft, to produce installations that form dialogues between landscape, material and process.
Spanning a material language of wood and metal Bainbridge’s work seeks a grounded presence in the physicality of the sculpted object through his enduring relationship to the natural body of the tree. By working with trees that have fallen where they once grew, his sculptures are a direct and intimate connection to land and place. Exploring the human condition and the need to protect ourselves in times of crisis, his works, carved from wood, often sit in relation to objects cast in metal as he looks to how our fragile and complex place within the natural world can persist and endure. Through the stripping of bark, casting of wood and hollowing of trunks Bainbridge explores what is imbibed within these trees throughout their lifetime. He looks to how their environment has shaped and changed them, and in doing so, reflects on our own place within the natural world. By shifting the narrative from strength and fertility to that of vulnerability and mortality, each sculpture offers a different lament on what it means to be human, to exist within a fragile and ever-changing ecosystem. By embodying the monumental presence of the tree into objects on a more intimate human scale, his works become quiet reflections on our relationship with the natural world and the importance of evaluating our place within it.
Born in London in 1991, Max Bainbridge studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, from which he graduated in 2013. In 2014 he established Forest + Found, an art collective with whom he works on public commissions, exhibitions and curatorial projects.
Spanning a material language of wood and metal Bainbridge’s work seeks a grounded presence in the physicality of the sculpted object through his enduring relationship to the natural body of the tree. By working with trees that have fallen where they once grew, his sculptures are a direct and intimate connection to land and place. Exploring the human condition and the need to protect ourselves in times of crisis, his works, carved from wood, often sit in relation to objects cast in metal as he looks to how our fragile and complex place within the natural world can persist and endure. Through the stripping of bark, casting of wood and hollowing of trunks Bainbridge explores what is imbibed within these trees throughout their lifetime. He looks to how their environment has shaped and changed them, and in doing so, reflects on our own place within the natural world. By shifting the narrative from strength and fertility to that of vulnerability and mortality, each sculpture offers a different lament on what it means to be human, to exist within a fragile and ever-changing ecosystem. By embodying the monumental presence of the tree into objects on a more intimate human scale, his works become quiet reflections on our relationship with the natural world and the importance of evaluating our place within it.
Born in London in 1991, Max Bainbridge studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, from which he graduated in 2013. In 2014 he established Forest + Found, an art collective with whom he works on public commissions, exhibitions and curatorial projects.
Works
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Forest + Found | Max BainbridgeThe Land Jar2022£ 4,500.00 inc. vat
English walnut
H41 x W40 cm -
Forest + Found | Max BainbridgeLand Jar2022£ 2,500.00 inc. vat
English walnut
H33 cm x D31 cm
