Q&A with Tony Heaton OBE
We caught up with awarding winning artist and sculptor Tony Heaton OBE at his studio to discuss our recent acquisitions. Watch the videos below to see what he had to say…
The Inspiration Behind LOOP
In this video, Tony discusses the inspiration behind GREEN LOOP. He discusses carving the original piece, Sweet Meeting, in Italy and his fascination with using geometric shapes in his work. Read the full transcript below:
I originally carved it in marble, in Carrara, in Northwest Italy. So that’s what the original piece looks like. So it’s carved from a lump of rock, lump of marble, directly carved. I did it in a cooperative in Carrara where I work. Every year, I sort of go to Carrara and make some work. And my maquette for this was a polo mint, which, it kind of looks like a polo mint. So professori who wanders around looking at all the sculptors who’ve rented some space came along and my polo mint is on my bench. And I’m carving this out of a big piece of marble. And he said, “What is this?” I said, “It’s my maquette,” laughingly. And he picked it up and put it in his mouth, crunched it. And he started to walk off and he went, “No maquette.” So, of course, I get my polo mints out, take another polo mint out and put it there. So every time he comes past, he’s eating my polo mint. But the starting point is the ubiquitous polo mint. But I like to play with words, so it says loop ’cause it is a loop. So I quite like geometry, so a lot of my work is based around geometry. A lot of it I use language. So it was just really changing the polo word into the loop word. But when anybody sees it, they always go, “Oh, it’s a big polo.” I said, “No, it’s not a big polo. “It’s not that.” So it started out white because polo mints are minty white. And then there’s something called fruit polos, which have five different colours. So this is one of a series of five.
2024 and Beyond
In this video, Tony discusses what 2024 and beyond has in store for him. Read the full transcript below:
I’ve got a piece of sculpture at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is called “Gold Lame”, and that’s a big-ish piece that’s gonna be at Yorkshire Sculpture Park until it goes to Venice Biennale. And there’s some pieces downstairs in packing cases, two neon pieces, a piece called “Great Britain From A Wheelchair”, and a piece called “Shaken Not Stirred”, which is in London at the moment. And they’ll all be going to Venice. So, that’s the sort of next iteration. And you see it’s gonna be in Venice for a year and then the work will come back. And then I think it tours two galleries in the UK. And then of course, it’ll be going to The Harris.
Harris Your Place
Harris Your Place is a £16 million project set to restore and reimagine the Harris for 21st-century audiences as a cultural learning space. The aim of this project is to protect the building and the architecture for future generations whilst enhancing accessibility options and positioning the Harris as a community hub for Preston and Lancashire.
The capital project is more than simply preserving this much-loved building; Harris wants to ensure that it remains a vibrant heart of the community. A place where people want to spend their time.
