Steve Hurst's 'War Toys' in London

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Steve Hurst | ‘War Toys’

9 July–23 August 2014

Pangolin London

Coinciding with the centenary of the First World War, Pangolin London is hosting an exhibition of works by sculptor and war historian Steve Hurst. Whether cast, fabricated, drawn or written, Hurst’s work often actively questions common opinion and official war history and contrasts it with his own personal experience.

The enigmatic sculptures, collages and assemblages that result from these combined interests are instantly recognizable in form, yet imbued with a poignant sense of the tragedy, futility and injustice of war.

Steve Hurst was born in 1932 in Cairo to British parents. By the outbreak of the Second World War they had returned to his parents’ native Oxfordshire, where Steve would spend his childhood years. From a young age he was aware of the devastation and change that war brought. His mother and father had lost friends and family to the First World War and were part of that initial generation of pilgrims who journeyed to Flanders and Picardy to pay respect to lost loved ones and seek answers and perhaps some solace amongst the devastation.

His parent’s accounts of this harrowing trip were the catalyst for Steve Hurst’s own expeditions to the Western Front in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. These trips inspired ‘The Somme Series’, a body of sculpture and relief works that draw on the destructed landscape of the area, symbolizing the events that took place there and the lives lost.

Hurst was himself called up for national service in the early 1950s and had first hand experience of war while posted in Malaya. Army life, the disorganization and indeed sadism of some of his comrades, left him critical and questioning of his own position within the conflict.

Between 1979 – 1981, during some of the worst of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, Steve Hurst took up a post as the head of the sculpture department at the University of Ulster, Belfast. Seemingly drawn to situations of conflict, Hurst taught students and made his own work amidst the constant threat of bombing. A foundry man by training in an art school with no metal work department, Hurst worked with what was available and made a series of sculptures from wood and found materials.

As with his studies of the Somme and his experiences in Malaya, he approached the conflict in Northern Ireland with a sympathetic yet critical eye and sought, through his work, to understand what felt like a futile and destructive war.

In the decades that followed Hurst’s fascination with war endured. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars he kept a diary of daily sketches and collages. Aesthetically these works have a strong topographical quality that pays homage to his time in the army as a tactical sketcher and air photo interpreter.The sculptures also made during this time are perhaps some of his most politically critical. The series of ‘War Toys’ and in particular his carved wood March of Folly make a strong comment on the corruption and stupidity of the political leaders engaged in these conflicts, with a particular focus on Blair and Bush.

Between 2009 and 2013 Hurst began to make regular visits to Ypres as artist in residence at the In Flanders Fields Museum. He was honoured with a retrospective at the Museum in 2013 exhibiting both older works from his extensive oeuvre and a newer body of sculpture based on his visits to the city. Many works from the Ypres Series question our culture’s obsession with war and indeed notions of remembranceand commemoration in relation to the First World War.

Steve Hurst’s sculpture, reliefs and drawings ask difficult and poignant questions about accountability and the true human cost of war. In addition, Hurst’s lifelong artistic exploration of the subject speaks not only of the artist’s enduing interest, but of the ever evolving and enduring nature of war itself.

Pangolin London is one of the city’s few galleries dedicated to exhibiting sculpture and is affiliated with Europe’s largest sculpture foundry Pangolin Editions. Since opening in 2008 in up-and-coming King’s Cross, the gallery has continued to hold a rotating exhibition programme of both Modern British and Contemporary Sculpture. In addition to the exhibitions in the gallery, Pangolin London also curates a changing exhibition of large-scale sculpture throughout the public spaces and canal-side at Kings Place as well as holding talks and lectures to coincide with exhibitions.

Pangolin London
Kings Place
90 York Way
London N1 9AG

Nearest Tube: Kings Cross

Entry: FREE
Gallery opening times: Monday - Saturday: 10a.m. –6p.m.
Exhibition dates:  9 July–23 August 2014.

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