Architecture of Continual Passion
Exhibition of Sculpture
by Tom Glendon
April 29th - May 19th 2005
When I lived among these dead
I did not love enough
And when I looked the murderers in their eyes
I did not die enough
I, lacked that which causes cities not to fall
The drop of agonizing sweat
That changes into impenetrable crystals upon crosses
Which bear cathedrals
That will which breaths its music upwards
Through flutes of springing columns
The love which holds each moment to each moment
With architecture of continual passion
Stephen Spender 1909 - 1995
Thomas Glendon carved the two unfinished Portland stone capitals at Loughrea Cathedral in 2003; they were the last in a long series begun seventy years earlier by a great master of relief carving, Michael Shortall. Whilst addressing the many aspects of design, subject matter, scale proportion, style and execution of the panels themes for sculpture that were for a long while in a nebulous stage started to manifest into a more tangible form in the margins of the task on hand. Upon completion of the carvings he used Loughrea as his base for work and explored his concepts through drawing, clay and wax and polystyrene modelling and workshop curios, the results of which are the body of new works in this show.
He trained as a carver of inscriptions where the design of letter-form was an integral part of his development. It is in the fundamentals of design where the undercurrent of his artistic worldview may be traced to. The clear interpretation of idea, refined in design, detailed in linear form, makes his work uniquely recognisable.
There are four main bodies of work he explores, The Space Between Us, Embrace, The Anterior Head and l'Onde, all linked to a desire to produce and use stone and bronze in a contemporary setting, be it architectural or landscape, to transcend the temporary nature of processed material and leave a living record of modern motifs acknowledging classical precedent.