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Communication Understanding Connection Compassion Love Peace 01

Understanding Communication Connection Compassion Love Peace 02

Introduction I was invited in 2009 to create a piece for an art exhibition entitled roundabout which brought together 108 artists from New Zealand and around the world At the heart of the show and woven through the fabric of many of the pieces created for it was the beautiful uote by Martin Luther King Jnr I have decided to stick with love hate is too great a burden to bear written in 1968 at the height of turbulent times in the United States I set out to create a piece that would bring people together a place to connect and share ideas inspired by the works and the inclusive ethos of roundabout The artists were encouraged to include language and somehow integrate the beautiful text into their pieces I spent a year exploring ideas and ways to bring the uote to life in a way that would do it Justice The thought that stayed with me throughout was the fine line between love and hate Communication in all its forms is the reason we fall on one side or the other of the love hate knife edge Miscommunication leads to misunderstanding misunderstanding to anger anger to conflict and serious conflict to violence The ultimate miscommunication manifesting as war I decided to build the piece from Walnut and darkened steel materials traditionally used to build weapons used instead to make something with the opposite reason for being I wanted to express the uote using language but without it being overt An obvious message that would intrigue the viewer but not be readily understood It would take effort time and perhaps a collaborative approach to decipher its meaning 03

I decided to use Braille A form of communication we all recognize but most of us cannot read I was fascinated to learn that Braille came into being through a collaboration between the young Louis Braille blinded in an accident in his father s leather workshop and Charles Barbier one of Napoleon s captains who was tasked with the challenge of creating a form of night writing to enable silent and invisible military communication for dark battlefields To put everyone sighted or blind on the same footing I altered the scale and indented rather then raised the dots The final piece entitled 1821 the year that Braille and Barbier met was a perfectly round meeting table made to represent the artists from 108 staves o Walnut which prized for its beauty tactility and endurance was traditionally used to make the stocks of guns While each stave was an individual piece they effectively hold hands with each other around the circle Removal of any one stave would result in the entire structure failing They were arranged around a circular dark steel plate finished using traditional gun bluing techniues At the center of the plate the circular top of the tapered column that supported the top was visible This central column remained still while the wheel like top could rotate around it on a precision bearing Inscribed in a line of Braille text across the metal plate was the beautiful uote carefully arranged so that the word love sat still and constant at the dead center of the complex revolving structure This first piece inspired many more uniue commissions where the Braille inclusions ranged from single words to poems that infused the entire structure of pieces that included all manner of objects from a clock made with my horologist father to a huge boardroom table and now to the purely expressive words in this book 04

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Text number I Beginning 07

This first purely expressive piece with text written in my own words This was inspired by a conversation with a dear friend and ex colleague on the hottest day in London s history in 2022 it was written on the train from London to York the following day As the name suggests it marks the start of a new phase a revelation and evolution from making objects of utility to objects whose sole purpose is to convey deeply personal messages Beginning speaks of the awakening and decision to start making non functional works that expresses in my own words ideas values and memories of people places and experiences I hold most dear 08

Beginning I Brass with Walnut frame 600 x 600 x 55 mm 1 of 1 2023 09

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Beginning II Brass with Walnut frame 900 x 900 x 60 mm 1 of 1 2023 11

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Beginning III Brass with Walnut frame 600 x 600 x 55 mm 1 of 1 2023 13

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Beginning IV Brass with Walnut frame 900 x 900 x 60 mm 1 of 1 2023 15

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Beginning V Steel with Walnut frame 600 x 600 x 55 mm 1 of 1 2023 17

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Beginning VI Steel with Walnut frame 900 x 900 x 60 mm 1 of 1 2023 19

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Beginning VII Steel with Walnut frame 600 x 600 x 55 mm 1 of 1 2023 21

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Beginning VIII Steel with Walnut frame 900 x 900 x 60 mm 1 of 1 2023 23

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Beginning X Solid Walnut 600 x 600 x 55 mm 1 of 1 2023 25

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Beginning IX Solid Walnut 900 x 900 x 60 mm 1 of 1 2023 27

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Beginning XII Solid Walnut 600 x 600 x 55 mm 1 of 1 2023 29

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Beginning XI Solid Walnut 900 x 900 x 60 mm 1 of 1 2023 31

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Text number II Home 33

Sitting in my studio shortly after returning from a trip to England listening to a Tui call and a breeze that rattled the flax pods around the pond I was overwhelmed by a realization that I have two homes England the place of my birth my childhood my mother and father my family and friends The faces and places that saw me learn and grow and that set me on my way to who knew where New Zealand is the place I chose or perhaps chose me I began to grow again became a husband and a father grew new roots and learned new ways to live and be My purpose and creative potential found fertile soil here in Aotearoa and I built a firm foothold to give me the courage to find my inner voice and share it with the world 34

Text number III Balance 35

Since leaving my gallery in Arrowtown in 2016 I worked uietly and often in solitude from my private studio During this time I was increasingly drawn to projects where utility purpose and meaning were eually valued and expressed In 2022 I committed to start making purely expressive works that would hang on walls the vertical realm of what is generally considered art The voice of self doubt began to whisper Who am I to reinvent myself as an artist What will everyone think Is the work good enough Will people like it Will anyone want to hang it on their wall Does anyone even care what I have to say These fears are so common in all of us They stop us taking that first step and hold us back from revealing our inner selves They silence the words we so dearly want to speak stop us sharing the things we believe and care about our truths that we could should and ought to share This is the dark place we so often avoid yet it is the place where our creativity slumbers slipping in and out of restless dreams of what could be if we just let go Unlike the words of Beginning and Home that spilled out of me almost fully formed Balance came slowly gradually revealing itself over the course of several uiet days that will always remind me of the scent o Thyme and a bone dry Central Otago summer 36

Beginning The first piece The first time these words are my own The beginning The start of my message Why I do this What I care about What I want and need to say To share connect and inspire The beginning of the next phase The next step in the journey Ducking deeper into the flow Find my voice The first piece 37

Home Home where my bones are from The place that made me The rich earth and beloved people who raised me The space where my heartbeat eases into its natural rhythm Home again in another land far away from my beginning A new place of nurture for my body and soul A haven of peace joy and discovery for my own family Gratitude for my places of belonging and a growing awareness that the welcoming light of our hearts home is always at hand to be offered and received in even the briefest moments of connection and kindness 38

Balance Hesitant to to return to the stage Eager yet my toes reach out tentatively as if onto wet ice unsure it will hold me I gather myself and step out to find not solid boards under my feet but a rope Applause and heckling greet me Their warm breezes cool gusts and unnerving periods of silent stillness test my balance I inch forward feeling naked in the spotlight Focusing inwards noticing my movements in response to the gentle sway of the rope The audience fades into the distance and I settle for the first time Glancing down I see the rope floats just inches above the stage 39

Ed Cruikshank was born in Widnes England He studied Fine Cabinet Making then Industrial Design before spending a decade in London working alongside David Linley now Snowdon creating extraordinary custom furniture He moved to ueenstown New Zealand in 2002 establishing his own practice Cruikshank the following year focusing on the creation of timeless enduring furniture and objects Since 2010 his work has featured embedded text predominantly expressed in a pierced version of Braille 40