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Lot Essay
David Nash discussed the philosophical change that occurs by burning wood in an interview with Susan Daniel-McElroy, Director, Tate St Ives, in 2004: 'There are various practical reasons for charring. When I see a sculpture made of wood, the first thing I see is the wood and then I see the form, if it's burnt it is no longer an experience connected with the emotional narrative of living wood. It also changes the sense of time. The feeling of time in wood is quite close to ours in terms of our sense of mortality. Trees grow 80-100 years, oaks maybe several hundred years and there are the exceptions of the redwoods that are older. But compared to stone, wood is closer to us and I think we have a natural affinity with it and understand it has a defined mortality. We don't feel the mortality of stone. When I have altered the surface of wood from vegetable to mineral to become carbon, it creates a different experience when you look at the sculpture. Burning hardly changes the size, maybe by a millimetre but it feels different in size. I can't really say whether it feels bigger or smaller but it seems further away as an object' (see exhibition catalogue, David Nash Making and Placing Abstract Sculpture 1978 - 2004, St Ives, Tate, 2004, p. 41).
Susan Daniel-McElroy adds, 'I have read that the idea of a 'furnace of transformation' is alchemical. In alchemy, when two opposite elements are combined in a closed retort and subjected to heat, a new synthesis can occur. Nigredo, or blackening, is the first step in alchemical transformation; and when nigredo is at its worst (or its fiercest), a secret birth takes place. The cauterizing effects of fire also suggests a kind of purification. Gaston Bachelard in his book Psychoanalysis of Fire (London, 1987, p. 7) explores the association of this phenomenon beautifully, 'If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire. Fire is the ultra-living element. It is intimate and it is universal. It lives in our heart. It lives in the sky. It rises from the depth of the substance and offers itself with the warmth of love ... among all phenomena, it is really the only one to which there can be so definitely attributed the opposing values of good and evil. It shines in Paradise. It burns in Hell. It is gentleness and torture. It is cookery and it is apocalypse.'' (ibid., pp. 41-42).
Susan Daniel-McElroy adds, 'I have read that the idea of a 'furnace of transformation' is alchemical. In alchemy, when two opposite elements are combined in a closed retort and subjected to heat, a new synthesis can occur. Nigredo, or blackening, is the first step in alchemical transformation; and when nigredo is at its worst (or its fiercest), a secret birth takes place. The cauterizing effects of fire also suggests a kind of purification. Gaston Bachelard in his book Psychoanalysis of Fire (London, 1987, p. 7) explores the association of this phenomenon beautifully, 'If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire. Fire is the ultra-living element. It is intimate and it is universal. It lives in our heart. It lives in the sky. It rises from the depth of the substance and offers itself with the warmth of love ... among all phenomena, it is really the only one to which there can be so definitely attributed the opposing values of good and evil. It shines in Paradise. It burns in Hell. It is gentleness and torture. It is cookery and it is apocalypse.'' (ibid., pp. 41-42).