‘Down By The Water’ – Shallows Spoon

‘Down By The Water’ – Shallows Spoon by Stuart Cairns.

When Cairns makes, his workshop is filled with a soundscape of music, the raw sounds of Mark Lanegan, PJ Harvey and Tom Waits, the haunting sounds of Nick Cave and Kathryn Joseph, the urgency of electronica and the calm sounds of singer song writers. He channels it all, bringing these eclectic sounds and stories into physical forms, makers and musicians telling the same stories through differing means and languages.

He thinks of the rhythm of things, of how pieces can sit next to one another, the shapes and materials singing through careful composition and considered arrangement. The music of materials pervades the pieces, with dashes of line, the deep tones of surfaces with a chorus of colour bringing it all to completeness. 

The title, Down By the Water, is from the album by PJ Harvey, the material he gathered by the tideline the spark of the pieces. The set of three implements is arranged to its own rhythms, together forming a greater resonance as they visually bounce off each other. They are composite forms, springing from beach found sea plastics, with hammered and soldered steel lines, silver sheet structures and a patina brushed, sunk gilding metal dish. Elements are riveted with silver pins, bound with linen thread or tied with hammered silver ties, each piece is between 16 and 20 cm long.

Materials: gilding metal, patina, steel, silver rivets, shore gathered plastic, painted board.

Board measurements: approx. 15 x 20cm.