Nicola Buxton

Working With Boundaries, Changing The Balance
Steel railings from the Bryan D Stevenson and mixed media

Nicola Buxton’s starting point was looking at Newlyn School paintings concerned with the fishing industry. Sketching around the harbour she was drawn to the lines and structures of the boat masts, cranes and other machinery. While working there she discovered a boat which was due to be decommissioned, the Brian D Stevenson, and was given permission to take the bow rails.

Her previous work has been concerned with boundaries and points emphasising in-betweenness. The railings gave the fishermen safety from the dangers of the sea and they make a visual boundary between one place and another; security and precariousness.

Alongside and amongst the reclaimed metal of the boat, Buxton has fabricated her own sculptures. Much of it precariously balanced, it expresses something of the fragile nature of the fishing industry in Britain. Looking through the glass walls the collection points to the harbour walls and the tops of masts and rigging.