Creating a woodturned form from uniform six-inch blocks of ash wood was the challenge set to Irish Woodturners Guild’s members
Creating a woodturned form from uniform six-inch blocks of ash wood was the challenge set to Irish Woodturners Guild’s members. The ‘Turning Turns 40’ exhibition marks the guild’s 40th anniversary, which showcases the art of woodturning and design. The show also highlights critical issues that affect Ireland’s native ash tree – particularly ash dieback. First detected in Ireland in 2012, the disease is now widespread throughout the island. The ash has a long cultural and historical significance in Ireland, particularly as the source of the light, durable and elastic wood used for making hurleys.
From the 360 cubes of ash initially distributed to members, an independent judging panel of woodturners, Stephen O’Connell (Ireland), Barbara Dill (USA) and Ulf Jansson (Sweden), selected forty pieces for the travelling exhibition. Curator Sarah Ross praised the woodturners’ passion for their craft and ‘the beauty of the natural materials they use to create these finely crafted sculptural and functional forms’. Their work also ‘reminds us of the vulnerability of our natural world’, she said.
The artistic works reflect a diversity of influences, from Cubism to eco-activism. Among the techniques on display are turning, colouring, texturing, piercing, carving and hollowing. The woodturners were inspired to create a range of forms that express a deep, enduring pleasure in their work and materials. Exhibits include Patricia Berns’ Foraging Curlew on Marshland, referencing a bird species that, like the ash, is endangered; Rob Steen’s A Rocketship, to which he applies his love of science fiction; and Stephen Dowie’s startling work, Ash Die Back Constrained by Barbed Wire, which directly expresses his concerns. Although Oliver Hackett considers himself still a novice, his elegant Walking Canes involves intricate and demanding processes.
The show has already exhibited in Limerick’s Hunt Museum, the National Design and Craft Gallery in Kilkenny and the Royal Dublin Society. It travels to the Craft NI Gallery in Belfast in September and the Leitrim Design House in Carrick-on-Shannon in October, before touring to Minneapolis–Saint Paul in 2025.
Stephanie McBride
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