RAY HAYDON

Evolve

Sanderson are pleased to present the exhibition Evolve by Ray Haydon.
 
Haydon is an artist and sculptor with a career spanning more than twenty years. Responding intuitively to space, the artist creates works of refinement and precision. His pieces retain a lyricism and freedom of line that evoke a sense of movement and velocity, as well as celebrate the technical process that goes into their making.
 
‘Haydon acknowledges that he has a varied practice, but that the foundation of all his work lies in its fluidity; matter slipping through time, often illusory and unseen, but made visible in his sculpture.’[1]
 
In the same spirit of Constructivists like Naum Gabo, Haydon is constantly testing the variable ways that his sculptures can take on extraordinary new forms. Through an innate understanding of the mediums with which he works, the artist plays with pure materiality and shape to maximise spatial dynamics. His works embody a theatricality and tension in their defiance of gravity and physical illusionism that is both confounding and captivating.
 
This exhibition presents a new style of work – titled ‘Drift’ and crafted by the artist's hand from white oak the artwork undulates across the wall in mesmerising motion, like leaves moving in the wind across a forest floor or waves slowly moving over the top of one another. As well as this, Haydon presents a new suite of ribbon works in walnut and oak, and a new large-scale relief – a continuation of his Voyage series. Sitting proud from the wall this artwork loops and weaves in a graceful dance and beautiful autumnal hues. Other works include three standing sculptures nestled in stone bases, in three unique forms: a bronze with delicate fluid lines, a cast steel work in tubular form with the same autumnal hues as the wall based Voyage work, and a corten steel piece that winds and twists in an intricate infinite loop. Each of these works have been made to respond to the environment and the outdoors - to gradually weather over time, changing beautifully in tone to deep shades of crimson and brown.
 
Dr Andrew Paul Wood discusses the importance of the line in Haydon’s work; referencing Paul Klee’s ‘taking a line for a walk’ but also highlighting the negative space that Haydon’s sculptures delineate. [2] Haydon often describes the ‘simple flowing lines’ of his sculptures and the space that the works ‘create’. He likes the idea of a person walking around his works, the sculpture morphing and changing a person’s perspective as it is being viewed.[3]

[1] Abel, S. Voyage – Ray Haydon exhibition text, Sanderson Contemporary, October, 2022
[2] Wood, A.P Interview with Haydon, R. (2023, September). Dancing with Materials, ArtZone Magazine, Spring 23, Issue 96, p 56-57.
[3] Ibid.