John O’Rourke
The Northumbrian Miner
Since the early 90s I’ve been creating sculptures with complex interconnected interiors. They are mainly inaccessible but occasional openings in the outer form allow the viewer to get a hint of their nature. The two oak sculptures in this exhibition have these interiors. The piece entitled ‘A Robert Wyatt Construction Kit’ has a great many interconnected interiors. Most have small abstract sculptures within them. ‘Earth Astronomer’ is an archaic name for an alchemist. I conceived the work to be a memento mori to an industry of the past. Hence the skull like head. However, with all of the current escalations, hostility and aggression between the world’s democracies and more authoritarian nations, I cannot help seeing it as an omen of terrible suffering on all sides. Personally I’d like to see all nuclear weapons destroyed.
‘The Northumbrian Miner’ is a symbolic work which combines industrial methodologies with mysticism. The inward path is alluded to via the interiors as well as the headstock, cage and shaft which have become fused with and internalised within the miner’s body. The implied darkness of the shaft as it descends deep into the earth is also very important. It’s concerned with spiritual alchemy. Carl Jung had a deep interest in alchemy – the unity of opposites. He believed that we need to delve deeply within our subconscious, nurturing that which is positive and discarding unhelpful tendencies (one of seven stages in alchemy, which is known as Separation), to become fully ‘individuated’. Until we look deeply into this dark realm it will continue to influence our behaviour, and very often against our own will.
