Roofrack was an eye widening show of new work by sculptor Desmond Brett who has recently come to live and work in the Cambridge area. The sculptures were created especially for Taxi Gallery and were made in response to drawings made by Brett which explore his longstanding fascination with trailers, bays, frames, racks, freight and cargoes. The sculptures have been created using materials more usually associated with furniture making, house building and concealment and are presented both inside and on a specially created roof rack on top of the Taxi.

Desmond says "I've always wanted to make work in response to a vehicle - so this has been a exciting opportunity for me. A vehicle has so many interesting zones: glove box, boot, roof as well as the passenger area. I wanted to make objects that both occupied and challenged some of these spaces."

Desmond's work has consistently explored the world/s of off-cuts, left - overs, patching up, cobbling together, repairs and unwieldy shapes. The sculptures have been constructed to reveal the process of their making so that everything is revealed - the supports to prevent slumping and collapse, the mesh and plaster to define edges and also to decorate, the foam to soften edges and shellac to ape woodgrain.

Desmond says -"If this installation could be 'about' anything, perhaps its about the nomadic life of "stuff".

comments book extracts:

Squid rocket on a launch pad + christmas decoration + dustbin bomb

How sad the neighbourhood will be when your wondeful structures disappear .... fantastic & how sparkling

I've never seen anything quite like it.

The sculpture looks really different at night - I like it imposing in the little street

good to see the sculptures in real life

monstrosity

notes:

Jaws literally dropped and heads definitely turned every time a bus passed by especially in the first few days after Roofrack was installed. This exhibition attracted a huge amount of publicity including national newspaper coverage and a two minute feature on Anglia TV news.

Desmond teaches sculpture at the college attended by my teenage son, a chance mention by Desmond that he'd always wanted to make a sculpture for the boot of a car led to my son telling Desmond about Taxi Gallery. I was really pleased to receive Desmond's proposal as I'd been wanting a work that would create an immediate visual impact as the shows to date had been largely interior experiences.

The closing event for 'Roofrack' was the first Taxi Gallery event to be held in the neighbouring Scout Hut which came available to me through a chance meeting with the Scout Hut leader in which we struck a deal whereby I hold the Scout Hut keys and genrally keep an eye on the place etc and in return I can use it free of charge for Taxi Gallery openings etc! This is a fantastic solution to the innappropriateness of my domestic space for openings/events etc. Desmond was keen to use the space to project some of his super 8mm film work and made a film and lightbox installation in the hut - one of the people attending the event was a curator from Norwich Gallery and Desmond subsequently received an invitation to make new work in response to the gallery space for a group show in May of this year.

artist's reflections:

coming soon