Troubadour

Troubadour
Steel, zinc, paint
1.9m height
Edition of 3

Troubadour

This abstract sculpture takes its inspiration from music. The sculpture references musical elements, such as the arm playing the strings. The sculpture plays with the properties of steel in terms of the balance and negative space.

The arrangement creates a sense of balance, continuity and harmony. This is a common theme with Pete’s sculptures that they are proportional and balanced. Light interacts with the sculpture as it creates different shadows on the various elements at different times of the day.

Triptych in Blue

Triptych in Blue
Stainless steel, enamel
0.6m height
Edition of 8

Triptych in blue

This abstract wall relief takes its inspiration from sail shapes, and natural forms.

The work also references the sun/moon. The negative space is a connection, a connection between different expressions of form, and the space itself becomes its own form. Space is as much a part of a Moorhouse’s work as mass. For more information see Pete’s artist statement where he talks about the Japanese concept of ‘ma’.

The wall relief takes some inspiration form the wonderful works of Barbara Hepworth who was known for her sculptural forms with holes. She called that first sculpture ‘Pierced Form’ – a work that, simply by existing, could reframe the world it inhabited, make it possible to see through form and simultaneously see differently via form.

This wall relief is fabricated in stove enamelled stainless steel


Icarus

Icarus
Stainless Steel
Wall relief
1.5m high
Edition of 3


Icarus

This wall relief artwork gives a sense of movement and flight, the arcs could be seen to be circling the sun, falling to ground after they get too close to the sun.

In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus’ father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea’s dampness would not clog his wings nor the sun’s heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned.

‘don’t fly too close to the sun’ – The tragic theme of failure at the hands of hubris

The work is laser cut from brushed marine grade stainless steel.

Ziada

Ziada
Steel and paint
1.8m height
Edition of 8

Ziada 2020
Pete Moorhouse

This sculpture takes its inspiration from natural forms: tulip heads, unfurling leaves, sense of motion from the wind and sea and also from geometries found in traditional Islamic art which have much in common with western minimalism in terms of geometric seriality, repetition and strong clean lines etc.

Tulip – William Jay Smith 1918-2015

A slender goblet wreathed in flame,
From Istanbul the flower came
And brought its beauty, and its name.

Now as I lift it up, that fire
Sweeps on from dome to golden spire
Until the East is all aflame:

By curving petals held entire
In cup of ceremonial fire,
Magnificence within a frame.

Tulips were originally cultivated in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey). They were imported into Holland in the sixteenth century from where they made their journey to England. I chose an Arabic name given this origin. The three steel sections incorporating six faces could be seen to represent the fact that tulips typically have three petals and three sepals which look like petals. Coming from the east, the sun rising in the east, to open up the tulip. The tulip rising, growth, aspiration, flourishing, ascension,…Ziada – Arabic – grow/raise

Aspora V2

Aspora
Stainless steel
2.5m
Edition of 3

Aspora V2

The sculpture is a celebration of life. Celebrating plant forms and the cycle of new growth and regeneration. The overall form represents a leaf. Seeds, spores or pollen could be seen to be represented by the negative spaces – their presence suggested by their absence – gone in the wind to create new growth.

The geometric form of the sculpture and the elegant curves reference Islamic art traditions. The Islamic geometric patterns were inspired by forms found in nature – plant forms, petal arrangements etc. Extending this theme further, the skeleton vein pattern of a leaf have been replaced with an Islamic geometric pattern. This particular pattern originates from the Huand Hatun mosque in Kayseri, Turkey and would have originated approx. in 1200AD. This connection of the sculpture with another part of the world is a reminder that all life on earth is connected in one eco system.

The work is also intended to give a sense of balance and harmony, being delicate but strong, supporting and being supported – rising – celebrating life. The sculpture is contemporary but it is intended that the juxtaposition of modern art in the garden envirnment is sympathetic. It is hoped and that the sculpture draws ones eye inviting a closer inspection.

The name Aspora is formed by combining the ancient Greek words spora (spores) and diaspora (scattering/ dispersion).

New Commissions

I also undertake commissions of new work to create bespoke artwork for your setting. I have wide selection of models and maquettes that we can work from or original work can be designed to be site specific or respond to a particular context. Please get in touch to discuss options.

This is an example ‘Om’ in my maquette database- a meditation in polished stainless steel. Some works are developed in 3D software others are small card maquettes, and other are working on a small scale in steel or wood.

More information on commissioning work