"Concrete Trees" by Graham Gingles
Owner: Omagh District Council Location: Brook Road, Omagh (in grounds of St Chomcille’s Primary School) Title: Concrete Trees 1972-73 Artist: Graham Gingles Material: Cast Concrete Size: 244 x 122 x 39.5cm Funded by: ACNI – Art in Context Scheme Background: The Arts Council’s Art in Context scheme, run in the 1970s, was designed to ‘marry’ appropriate proposals with suitable sites belonging to sympathetic authorities. Gingles’ Concrete Trees are trees reduced to the basic form and complement the landscape. It is worth mentioning here also Arthur Armstrong’s play sculpture, which was made of concrete and fibre glass and designed for Belmont House School, Derry under the Art in Context scheme. This piece employed bold formal shapes and was designed to be used and not simply looked at. Regrettably this highly successful work, the only example of Armstrong’s public art is no longer in existence. Artists Details: Graham Gingles studied at Belfast College of Art from 1962-63 and at Hornsey College of Art from 1966-67. At first a painter, he moved to mixed media constructions where he combined drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs. He is now well known for his constructed boxes. Gingles has exhibited his work extensively. In 1980 he was awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Scholarship to the British School at Rome and in 1988 he received the Gold Medal at the Royal Ulster Academy exhibition. |
