ESMOND BINGHAM

Esmond Bingham is one of North House Gallery's most productive artists, and his work some of the most surprising. This is his sixth solo show at the gallery and he has also shown in six of the gallery’s mixed exhibitions. The show consists of constructions from the last four years, large and small, free-standing and wall pieces in a variety of materials as well as a few drawings. His modesty and humour downplay perhaps the astounding ingenuity and precision of the finished articles.

"I like to use everyday materials with no art pedigree, such as plywood, sheet glass or gardening canes. I don't sketch ideas in advance as I rarely have a clear idea where I am headed. Instead I play experimentally with materials, watching for an opportunity I couldn't anticipate. I like ideas to emerge and transform during the process until, after much back and forth, I recognise some form of resolution.

Individuals today are employing ever more sophisticated arms-length technology to enable the creation of beautiful flawless objects such as our phones or cards. We are increasingly dependent on them while, I suggest, they become ever more bossy, inscrutable and dystopian. I choose to make objects by hand - not always perfectly - to live in the real human world of imperfection, where decisions are often curious and where the materials and processes encountered are celebrated for their delights and flaws." EB

After Foundation at Ulster College of Art & Design (1968-69), Esmond gained a BA Hons in Fine Art from Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1969-72), and an art teacher’s certificate from Goldsmiths College (1972-73) and later an MA (Fine Art) from Norwich School of Art (1997-99). As a part-time lecturer at Chelsea School of Art and later as Associate Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University, he could maintain his practice alongside his teaching to a certain extent but since retirement he has been able to work full-time on his constructions. Of his 20 solo and 50 mixed and group shows, most have been in East Anglia and London, but he has also exhibited in Finland, Belgium, Hangzhou and St Petersburg.