Description
Object description
A sculpture incorporating several different elements. A steel and copper barrel contains twelve thick clear glass wedges, separated by copper plates. Set onto this hub are three metal beams which can be rotated about the centre. The beams each support a hand-blown torpedo-shaped bottle of magenta coloured glass. When displayed, three large abstract watercolour paintings in which magenta, green and yellow flow into one another are hung behind the sculpture. As originally displayed these are hung into a corner of the gallery, two on one wall, one on the other.
Label
In 1987 Graham Ashton was commissioned by the Artistic Records Committee of the Imperial War Museum to make a work on the subject of nuclear submarines. He spent three days at sea aboard the submarine HMS 'Valiant' observing the submariners at work and the technical environment of the submarine. He was particularly struck by the variety of technologies he found and these are reflected in the sculpture. He aims to address the concept of nuclear deterrence which he defines as including notions of balance, power, concealment, fragility and 'a curious quality of invisible omnipresence'.
His statement about the making of the work describes the elements he used: ' Both the materials and the shape of the finished sculpture are
meant to express the functional beauty of the apparatus on board. I chose copper for its sheen and its association with electrical and
machine power; I chose glass for its transparency and fragility…. The fixed beams on which the glass torpedoes rest can rotate around the
base in the way radar circles round the boat. The hand-blown glass shapes….allude most obviously to torpedoes, but they refer as well to
the whale-like hull of the submarine. They are also a sensuous evocation of liquid. .. the cold icy quality [of the twelve glass segments]
suggests ocean depth and cross-refers to the torpedo glass. The entire sculpture has been engineered with mechanical precision.'
Graham Ashton's work has been consistently concerned with the threat of global nuclear annihilation. This sculpture has an unnerving
fragility which the precision engineering cannot completely dispel.
History note
Artistic Records Committee commission