David Hastie
b. 1967, Carmarthen
Lives and works in Swansea
David Hastie's work is atmospheric and brooding. He works with timber, lead and sand from his family farm where his studio is based. Playing with notions of scale, David's work simultaneously puts the viewer in the position of child and adult. He creates hidden places or 'dens' that allow the viewer to be inside looking out, although whether these are places of safety or threat is not certain. Using his signature objects of castles, ladders, houses and sheds his work relays a sense of the past in its timeworn surfaces.
For the group exhibition In Retrospect, David filled the gallery space with floor-to-ceiling racks of tiny steel sheds. Titled Inherited, the work looks specifically at what is passed down through generations. He uses source materials from his family's farm on which he grew up to create objects that relay history in their timeworn surface. Aside from the physical inheritance of objects, the installation refers to a far more elusive inheritance of social structures and cultural traditions, our parents' histories, and personal memories from a distant past when we were subject to rather than in control of.
Hastie is one of Wales most foremost young artists. Brought up in Bishopston near Swansea he is a regular exhibitor at the Eisteddfod, and is currently guest lecturer in UWIC in Cardiff.
Past Exhibitions include Terminus at Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales in 2003 and Refuge at Watch This Space Gallery, Alice Springs, Australia in 2001.
In Retrospect
This artist is featured in:
It Was Never Going To Be Straightforward
Links :
www.davidhastie.info
