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PASSAGE 12 – PASSAGE OF CHANG-E, 2023
In China in 2016, while developing Guardians of the Secret, China Day (October 1) was set aside for demonstrating portrait studies in clay. My model was Lixia, who ran the canteen where lunch and breaks were taken.
As I was developing the sketch, her demeanour appeared to me as an emanation of a moon goddess – the Chinese version is Chang-e. I was in Changsha, I went with this inspiration, began to think of her as such and have since titled it:
Headworks – Moon
The study remained there to be cast and given to her.
In March 2023, while engaged in drawings of the Passage series, I drew upon the visual record and my memory of that day to develop a new work, of recurring lunar pieces, within my overall body of work.
Being the twelfth of the Passage series seemed very fitting.
Twice removed from Lixia, the drawn renderings are no longer portraits of her.
They are my realizations of Chang-e.
PASSAGE 12 - Passage of Chang-e
2023
graphite on acid-free fibre paper
20 x 15 inches
TRIPTYCH OF THE GUARDIANS
NEW MEDALLIC WORKS & SPRING REFLECTIONS, April 2020
Read full article here (PDF, courtesy of Desigher, Lorraine Wright)
Ahead of three new bronze medals being presented in Japan, I have contributed to the Spring edition (issue 52) of the new Behind the MASC publication. This article explores my current processes and development of these new works, Triptych of The Guardians; miniature reflections of my second monumental work in China at the Yanghu Wetlands International Sculpture Park in Changsha.
CANADIAN SCULPTURE CENTRE, THE DISTILLERY DISTRICT
March 30 - April 28, 2019
39 Parliament Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 4R2
The Canadian Sculpture Centre has moved to a new capacious industrial-like gallery in Toronto's historic Distillery District. For the inaugural exhibition, which features 52 works by 29 members of the Sculptors Society of Canada, I have included 3 works from my Gazer series scaled at three different measures. GAZER SENTRY, 2019 (far left work in image below), GAZER SENTINEL, 2018 (central work); GAZER INTEGRATION 3, 2007
LIMITED EDITION BOOKS
GAZER is the second of four books chronicling the formation, evolution, and messaging of distinct major directions within the overall body of work. It has 60 pages (8.5 x 11"), 25 full page plates, and 75 figures embodied within the text. Its story begins in 1976 and moves through time to uncover its development from the early large outdoor commissions to the completion of the second monumental work in China.
It fully chronicles all the solo and group exhibitions of GAZER works and ends with the most recent inclusion of them into CONTINUA 3 in 2018. Its publication was launched at the opening of that exhibition.
Written and compiled by the artist and produced in collaboration with ArtDesign, November 2018, and in a limited edition of 50 (10 signed copies).
 
 
STREAM is the first of four books chronicling the formation, evolution, and messaging of distinct major directions within the overall body of work. It has 52 pages (8.5 x 11"), 16 full page plates, and 41 figures embodied within the text. This story begins in 1970 and moves through time to uncover its development from painting to sculpture. It is also a catalogue of STREAM, the solo exhibition of 2014, and moves from there to document, in full, the first major monument in China (2015-2016) and work, in both Canada and China, on the second (2016).
Written and compiled by the artist and produced in collaboration with ArtDesign, December 2016, and in a limited edition of 50 signed copies.
 
 
KUDOS V, CANADIAN SCULPTURE CENTRE
January 17 - February 8, 2019
Canadian Sculpture Centre, 500 Church St, Toronto, ON, Canada, M4Y 2C8
For the last exhibition at the current site of the CSC, I have elected to showcase two works from the late 1990s from two distinct major ongoing series that interact on several aspects. The smaller work, Circle Fray Portal 3, from the PORTAL/PATH series was created in 1997. It has been shown in several group shows and two major exhibitions. The larger piece, Summit Gazer 2, a major work of GAZER, was first shown in my solo exhibition, Continua 2, in 2000, having been built the year earlier. It has also been exhibited in various group shows and was installed as a focus work in the lobby of a major commercial building at 120 University Ave in downtown Toronto, for several months in 2011.
Both works interact abstracted bronze figuration into a housing of constructed and welded steel. In one, the figure is constricted within the circular boundary, although this has opened and freedom is apparent. In the other, the figure soars above the endless circle of time, itself, lightly suspended above two dancing shafts of duality. The dual pinning in the Portal piece is far more deliberate and imposing. The base of this work opens in response to the opened circle above. The base of the Gazer piece is a fixed square representing matter and the earth; its cruciform and circular cut outs, referencing direction and time, are filled with coloured cement aggregate.
CIRCLE / FRAY PORTAL 3
1997
bronze, steel, lacquer
96 x 38 x 18 cm
SUMMIT GAZER 2
1999
bronze, steel, lacquer, alumina cement
203 x 58.5 x 30.5 cm
YANGHU WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE PARK, CHINA, SUMMER 2018
GUARDIANS OF THE SECRET has been completed in bronze and installed at the Yanghu Wetlands International Sculpture Park in Changsha China. It stands four metres tall and spans five metres on its base.
For more information and visual documentation of its creation see News entry below.
CANADA-CHINA LOW-CARBON ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE FORUM, MARKHAM CIVIC CENTRE COUNCIL CHAMBER
October 3, 2017
I was the keynote speaker in the Chinese organised event spearheaded by Zhang Baogui – the esteemed sculptor and director/chair of many national and Beijing specific organizations. The overall topic for the forum:
"to promote the use of discarded construction waste and concrete mixture in the creation of sculpture. Artists use the language of sculpture to create a work of environmental protection theme, beautifying our public environment, and inspiring sustainable development."
I gave a visually supported presentation on my own experiences over many years in creating work with a low-carbon footprint. I also embellished this talk with specific works not of my own that supported the topic. Zhang Baogui and sculptor Zhu Shangxi also presented as did noted Chinese architects, Cao XiaoXin and Qi Bin. Moderator Janice Zhang summed up the day with her presentation as the topic related to real estate. Markham mayor Fred Scarpitti spoke on low-carbon environmental protection and urban development.
 
 
Left: with Mayor Fred Scarpitti & Zhang Baogui holding low-carbon creations by Zhang
Right: with Zhang Baogui & Zhu Shangxi
SCULPTURE SYMPOSIUM 2016:
CHANGSHA INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE ART FESTIVAL, CHINA
ECO-PORTAL (THE PORTAL MISTRESS SINGS) of 2015 photographed on Oct. 20th 2016, the last day of the Changsha Sculpture Festival of 2016.
Situated on a low rise from the main road, in the Yanghu Wetlands International Sculpture Park, with a walkway through the portal to a secondary path by the water's edge. Beautifully patinated green with polished highlights emerging.
GUARDIANS OF THE SECRET
GOTS was designed for and created, in clay, at the third invitational Changsha International Sculpture Festival between Sept. 20 & Oct. 20, 2016. It is now being processed into bronze for inclusion in the Yanghu Wetlands Sculpture Park in Changsha China.
The work is a balancing of opposing forces in three parts - a YinYang duality. It deals with the unknown factor, protection of our environment, and regeneration of the streaming of life. The static sentinels gaze to both the eternal cosmos and the nurturing planet. The central egg-like structure has two opposing streams that generate from below, writhe in and out of the surface, and meet at its apex. The two protecting columns have similar streams that also generate from below, front and back, and travel upward to the Gazer heads. Both pillars have fully realized expressive hands and faces.
 
 
 
LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
This print portfolio was produced in Changsha China, in a limited edition of 4 signed copies each, and presented (in various numbers) to government officials, sponsors, and participants of the Changsha Sculpture Festival of 2016.
SCULPTURE SYMPOSIUM 2015:
CHANGSHA INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE ART FESTIVAL, CHINA
September – October 2015
RIchard McNeill has been invited by Shangxi Zhu of Beijing and he will be participating in the Changsha International Sculpture Art Festival 2015.
UPDATE, November 2015
The ECO-PORTAL OF CHANGSHA (THE PORTAL MISTRESS SINGS) was finished on Oct. 8, 2015. Plaster moulds for the fiberglass positive were begun on Oct. 11. It is currently being transposed into bronze at the Huamei Sculpture company in Changsha. It will be positioned on a hill, with a winding path through it, in the Changsha Wetlands Sculpture Park. Twenty-four works from this year’s symposium, by sculptors from all over the world, will be sited in a newly designed area of the park.
  
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