NEW EXHIBITION - THE THORNFLOWER SCULPTURE BY CHARLOTTE MAYER ARRIVES AT SALISBURY CATHEDRAL

Charlotte Mayer’s beautiful and thought-provoking bronze and steel sculpture ‘The Thornflower’, which grew out of her reflections on the death of her grandmother in Treblinka and ‘man’s inhumanity to man at other times’, is now on display in the Morning Chapel at Salisbury Cathedral for six months, a period which includes both Remembrance-tide and Holocaust Memorial Day.

Six further bronzes and one stainless steel sculpture by Charlotte Mayer are also exhibited until Thursday 19 November. Inspired by the moon and natural forms they reflect Charlotte’s preoccupation with unity, harmony and duality, which is also expressed in The Thornflower.

The Thornflower takes the form of three petal-like diametrically-opposite configurations, created from the shapes of crescent moons and held high by five stems of brutal thorns set into a circular bronze base. The sculpture is full of contrasts being both soft and fluid, rigid and sharp, rounded and straight, while the warm and rich golden flowers contrast with the cold dark grey of the steel thorns.

For Mayer, “Making a piece of sculpture does not usually include writing a story but The Thornflower is more than just a piece of sculpture, and the story begins with my Grandmother, Ruzena. It is the story of a journey from duality to unity and also, in part, a story of healing.”

Mark Bonney, Canon Treasurer and Chairman of Salisbury Cathedral’s Exhibitions Committee, is delighted that the Cathedral is hosting The Thornflower for 6 months. “This beautiful sculpture stands as a powerful symbol of reconciliation as it seeks to bring together contrasting and conflicting elements, reflecting Salisbury Cathedral’s own commitment to justice and unity. Bringing into harmony elements that are in conflict lies at the heart of the Christian message of the reconciling love of God. We hope that the many visitors who see these sculptures in the beautiful, peaceful setting of the Morning Chapel will be moved by their presence and the story they tell.”

The Thornflower can be seen Monday to Saturday 9.00am – 5.00pm and Sundays 12.30pm – 2.30pm in the Morning Chapel in Salisbury Cathedral from now until mid-April. The seven further sculptures are present until 19 November. Admission free.

For further information about Charlotte Mayer and her work, please contact Rachel Bebb at The Garden Gallery (www.gardengallery.uk.com), email: rachelbebb@aol.com or telephone 01794 301144.

Charlotte Mayer’s family came from Prague, which she left as a child to go to England in 1939. At the age of 16 she went to Goldsmiths' College where she grasped the importance of form and structure from two particularly influential teachers, Ivor Roberts Jones and Harold Wilson Parker. She went on to the Royal College of Art where Frank Dobson urged her to "keep it simple". Her early sculpture was figurative and carved from stone. A visit to New York in 1967 led to the creation of several sculptures in welded steel, inspired by the scale and architecture of the buildings. In the1970s a new interest in the natural world developed during family holidays on Dartmoor. First, a series of welded animals, then beautiful poised serene forms inspired by pods, leaves, shells and ammonites, with movement a significant characteristic of her work. Most of her work is cast in bronze by the Pangolin Editions Art Foundry in Gloucestershire, with which she has enjoyed a long association. Some of her work is fabricated in steel. In gardens, Charlotte's sculptures are in perfect harmony with trees, plants, water and the play of light. Charlotte Mayer's skill as an artist, the depth of her imagination and her exceptionally high standards of craftsmanship are well recognized. Her work is represented in both corporate and institutional collections, and private collections in Europe, Japan and the USA. Public commissions include work for Banque Paribas in London, and in 2001 her large bronze sculpture, Pharus, was installed at Goodwood in Sussex by the Cass Sculpture Foundation. Charlotte Mayer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

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