Roger Ackling was born in Isleworth, London in 1947. He studied at St Martin's School of Art, graduating in the 1960s alongside Richard Long and Hamish Fulton. Like Long, Ackling took his practice outside of the studio and directly employed nature as his material.
His small scale sculptural works are made by focusing sunlight through a hand held magnifying glass to draw onto pieces of discarded wood or scraps of card. This intricate and primitive mark making is the focus of his work; he states "I'm not a symbolic artist; it is what it is at the time of making it."
His first solo exhibition took place at Lisson Gallery, London in 1976 where he has continued to exhibit throughout his career. He also exhibited extensively in Japan during the 1980s and has also shown at Angles Gallery, Santa Monica (1992), Palais Thurn and Taxis, Austria (1995) and Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield (2000).
His works are featured in many UK and international collections including, Arts Council of Great Britain, British Museum, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo. He is represented by Ingleby Gallery, Scotland and lives and works in Norfolk.
His small scale sculptural works are made by focusing sunlight through a hand held magnifying glass to draw onto pieces of discarded wood or scraps of card. This intricate and primitive mark making is the focus of his work; he states "I'm not a symbolic artist; it is what it is at the time of making it."
His first solo exhibition took place at Lisson Gallery, London in 1976 where he has continued to exhibit throughout his career. He also exhibited extensively in Japan during the 1980s and has also shown at Angles Gallery, Santa Monica (1992), Palais Thurn and Taxis, Austria (1995) and Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield (2000).
His works are featured in many UK and international collections including, Arts Council of Great Britain, British Museum, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo. He is represented by Ingleby Gallery, Scotland and lives and works in Norfolk.
Roger Ackling lives and works in Norfolk and teaches at Chelsea and Norwich School of Art and Design. He makes his intricate delicate objects from pieces of wood found on beaches and river banks. Using a magnifying glass he burns lines across the wood in a single sitting. His pieces are quiet, simple and powerful. Ackling is inspired by Oriental culture, has had several shows in Japan and has recently shown at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.
Roger Ackling talks about his work:
The research work undertaken at CERN is done primarily by theoretical and particle physicists. I was particularly attracted towards the theoretical. Although the experiments undertaken by particle physicists were often supported by impressive machinery I found that paradoxically that the theoretical was more tangible. From conversations with theoretical physicists it seemed to me that extra-ordinary maps were being constructed of countries that perhaps didn't exist. Maps made countries appear. I thought of these maps as belief structures, structures which would allow a way forward. In this sense the comparison with my own work practice was tangible.
My intention therefore was not to work metaphorically or to illustrate but paradoxically to set myself a task using parameters which seemed potentially limitless: time and space. I wanted to make a map, a visual belief structure that was a way forward for me. To do this I have worked within a practice and with concerns developed over thirty years while also using new untried ideas in the hope that something which was non visual could become visual, something potentially meaningless would become meaningful.
My intention therefore was not to work metaphorically or to illustrate but paradoxically to set myself a task using parameters which seemed potentially limitless: time and space. I wanted to make a map, a visual belief structure that was a way forward for me. To do this I have worked within a practice and with concerns developed over thirty years while also using new untried ideas in the hope that something which was non visual could become visual, something potentially meaningless would become meaningful.
References:
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/pressreleases/releases2000/PR06.00ESignatures.html
collection.britishcouncil.org/collection/artist/5/17677
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