Historic Site: A Sculptor's View

What is a `candlepoise'? The Normans' version of a table lamp, of course - according to Stirling Clark, sculptor-in-residence during 1991 at Dover Castle, Kent, England. Clark's brief was to base his own two- and three-dimensional work on aspects of the castle, and to develop and teach programs of art, design and technology for visiting schools and colleges which would help them use Dover Castle as a source of pattern, texture and form for their work. The video records his own sculptures which include a Siege Chair, a daunting wheeled seat of oak beams and rusting iron, the King Eggcup, a unique example of Norman breakfastware displaying impregnable stonework, strategically placed arrowslits and a lightly boiled egg, and the Candlepoise itself. It shows him working with visiting groups of adult-education students and children of different ages; their productions include a curious selection of neckties decorated with patterns drawn from close observation of stonework around the castle. School groups go on to produce their own design-based classroom work. Although the work of the sculptor and his visitors is based on Dover Castle, the ideas expressed during his residency and recorded here could be applied to any historic building or site.

This program is particularly suitable for teacher training.

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