Interview
with Ian Rank-Broadley
Personal history
Ian lives in Gloucestershire with his wife Hazel who is a homeopath and they have two children Jacob and Viola who are studying at university.
Ian was born in Surrey to hardworking people who were disinterested and uninterested in the arts. Ian's father was an ironmonger and although he did not understand his son's interest in art it was always accepted that he was to become an artist. He was fortunate to have had a charismatic art teacher at school who helped develop his knowledge and interest in the art world.
Ian is proud of the fact that three generations of his family were in the Armed Forces including his father and grandfather who served during WW2.
Sculptural motivation:
The making of images has been central to his life. From an early age a compulsion to render in three dimensions has been imperative. The art of creating an image, shaman-like, which would posses qualities that exist in real life translated into a permanent state, was of immense importance.
As a student in the 1970's Ian realised a great deal of what passed for sculpture possessed none of the qualities which he was seeking. He knew that he had to start at the very beginning: for Ian this has meant many long hours looking at and studying the model. The form and articulation of the figure absorbed him entirely. Over the years he gradually began to understand the body intuitively and so could dispense with the model. The remembered image became the focus of his attention.
Whether in the studio or on the beach, the naked figure has always fascinated Ian. It is a subject that everyone can relate and respond to in their own way, often without conceptualising or intellectualising. That is the way he prefers to do it. There is a deeper response to the illusive and resonating qualities of the body in art.
The choice of the male figure / nude as a dominant motif was made quite early when he realised that the female nude had, to a large extent, been robbed of its power by the commercial world of advertising, whereas the male nude still retained a power that could excite, grab attention and shock. The reaction of the spectator to the male figure was stronger, whether out of competition, fear or embarrassment. It proved to be a potent image. For Ian as a sculptor, this fact has reinforced his work with a greater resonance and meaning.
The manipulation of material to create an image is the essence of the sculptor's craft. Ian's 'feel' of the material, whether it be clay, wax, plaster or bronze informs the outward appearance of the sculpture. The tactile and plastic qualities are an important element in the way the sculpture is constructed. In the right light clay has the qualities of flesh and can be made to imitate the tautness of the athlete's thigh or the loose folds of flesh of an aged torso. It is the verisimilitude of the material that gives life to the surface of the work.
The act of drawing has also made a great contribution to his work. Here the initial investigation of an idea or one particular model plays its part. Long before any clay is applied to the armature, his eye will travel across the form and his hand records the nervous reaction to the stimuli. The drawing and re-drawing of the image from every angle begins, in his mind, to build an understanding of the three dimensional.
By eschewing fashion Ian has followed a path which has sometimes been solitary, but it is in a tradition, which has appeared to be pushed aside or forgotten, but it has never been entirely submerged, and it is there, powerful, when we seek to re-discover it. By its very nature sculpture does not speak quickly to its audience, which today can be very impatient, not willing to linger. The stillness of sculpture requires the spectator to enter into contemplation, and only then does it give up its message.
Ian was driven by a multitude of reasons to succeed in his endeavours to become the Armed Forces Memorial sculptor.
As a figurative sculptor Ian wants to communicate his empathy with the Serviceman or woman and what it is like to be a human being.
Service personnel compress life, live life on the edge and prepare to give the ultimate sacrifice. Most people live a cozy life, their only experience of combat or war is through films. People who serve in the Armed Forces do not merely climb the stairs they climb the mountain. Their experience is beyond the imagination of those in civilian life.
Ian explains:
'I feel an enormous responsibility to the audience who will view my sculpture and as such have made a point of going out and meeting the 'ordinary soldier'. I am doing this for them. Therefore I need to give some kind of visualisation of what was there before death. In creating imagery I chose to shy away from the horror of war. I am following a Greek ideal. I want to put the guys back whole. They died in the peak of physical perfection. I want to put them back together remembering the whole.'
'It is an immense privilege to work on the Armed Forces Memorial. The sculpture is not about an artist pleasing himself. It is about people, touch, shape, line, contour and emotion. It is through this sculpture that I hope those who see it can obtain something else. There is no reason for sculpture, it feeds a certain part of you... it is a bit like music and is intuitive'.
When Ian makes a sculpture he hopes that it will touch the people who view it, and that that they can be moved by the enormity of its representation.
For further information about the work of Ian Rank-Broadley visit his web site at www.ianrank-broadley.co.uk
