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Rory McDougall 500 Lake Kaniere Road Kaniere 7811 Hokitika Westland Phone: 03 755 5000 email: bruns-mcdougall@xtra.co.nz http://www.rorymcdougall.com
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Rory McDougall was raised in the Highlands of Scotland, in an area full of Pictish-Keltic stonework and archeology.
"My schoolbook doodles and patterns attracted the attentions of my art teacher, and so at age 12, I was introduced to the book "Keltic Art - Methods of Construction" by George Bain. Coincidentally Mr Bain had taught in my school 50 years previously and was a revivalist and promoter of the Keltic Arts."
McDougall studied metalcraft and stone masonry in Germany prior to settling in New Zealand. He lives on the West Coast, in Hokitika. His fascination with Keltic art and its iconography continues to influence his work. He has exhibited extensively and has several public art objects around New Zealand.
History
2022 | Solo Exhibition at Form Gallery Christchurch Installation of 4.2 m steel sculpture ‘Lady Weight’ at Loudon Farm |
2021 | Self-reflective period through Covid disruption. figurative works ‘Seven daughters of Eve’. range of small bronze works produced |
2020 | Private Commission Sungun 2, 4.2m diameter, Loudon Farm |
2019 | Public Sculpture Sungun1 Marshlands Christchurch |
2018 | Sculpture Award Rotorua Symposium Solo exhibition Chambers Gallery Christchurch |
2017 | Solo exhibition Min Kim Gallery, Christchurch |
2016 | 2 ton Isle of Skye marble, Carbost Scotland Exhibited in Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland |
2015 |
Lions Club Hokitika commission installed on beachfront ‘Table of Rememberance’ 24 ton granite ‘Ghost Soldier’ public sculpture, Rotorua purchased by council after War Memorial Symposium |
| 2014 | Ashburton Stone Symposium object purchased for Public Domain |
| 2013 |
Selected for Auckland Botanical Gardens summer exhibition
2 pieces purchased for Sir Richard Wallace collection Regularly exhibited at Banks Peninsula bi-annual sculpture show Bronze casting of Keltic disc shield series |
| 2012 |
Organized international hard stone symposium FORM 1, 2 and 3 Hokitika 2012, 2014, 2016 Solo Exhibition at Left Bank Gallery Greymouth |
| 2011 | 4 ton granite public sculpture Lions Club, Hoikitika |
| 2010 |
Public sculpture, Caroline Bay Park, Timaru, black marble sphere Commisioned by Kronauer Architects and Engineers, Germany for 2m serpentine stone sculpture |
| 2009 |
Winner of Department of Conservation Environmental Prize, Hokitika Commissioned by St Mary's School, Hokitika for 5 playground sculptures |
| 2008 |
5 ton polished andesite sculpture, public display, New Plymouth 7 month travels in Europe, bronze age studies in various national museums, notably Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Paris. Work on restoration project, 11th century castle, Bordeaux, France Work under guidance of master mason Uwe Spiekermann, realism, naturalism and casting techniques, Hannover, Germany |
| 2007 | Participant in ‘Out of the Rain’ exhibition, 33 Westcoast artist in Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth and Centre of Contemporary Art, ChCh |
| 2001-2006 |
Organised Hokitika Beachfront Symposium, wood and stone Worked on long term project, design and build large house –interior, exterior carving, landscaping, glass and metal work, large mural work on ceilings. Attended ‘Te Kupenga’, international hard stone symposia in New Plymouth 2004, 2006, 2008, 2014, 2016 Public commission – Rangiora Art Council |
| 2000 |
Invited to ‘Art in the Park’ International Stone Symposium, Christchurch Commissioned by Greymouth Council for six 10m sculptures on waterfront. |
| 1999 |
Moved to New Zealand permanently Continue exhibitions in Germany through Gallery ‘Dino Da Vinci’ |
| 1996-1999 |
Introduction to stone masonry by Master Uwe Spickermann, Hannover, Germany Sculpture projects in steel, stone, wood, glass and ceramics Special exhibition at the Keltic house built by Ferdinand Eichwede (1879-1911, Architect and Keltic revivalist). Founder of annual chainsaw symposium at Langenhagen Book illustrations, compact disc cover designs, short documentary on German Television. |
| 1992-1994 | Lived in Germany Introduction to metal craft and blacksmithing by Master Jurgen Helmer, Brelingen |
| 1990-1992 | Paintings in Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand |
| 1978-1989 |
Fine line drawing and painting of Keltic symbolism. Posters, murals, backdrops, vehicles and tattoos. Exhibitions in Edinburgh and Inverness. Attended Aberdeen School of Art for 1 year and dropped out. First clay sculptures. |
| 1977 |
Formal introduction to Keltic art by secondary school teacher. Inverness Royal Academy. Scotland |
| 1965 | Born and raised in Highlands of Scotland |
Rory McDougall's lifelong love and studies of Keltic Bronze Age artefacts in Scotland, Europe and the Near East has provided him many associations with essential recurring forms through time and culture
WATER
THE TRIPLE HELIX
KELTIC SYMBOLISM
Water Sustains All - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Water is the midwife of life, it is the lifeblood of the earth. Wherever she is, through her presence, she creates spaces and environments for the creation and sustenance of life.
Where there is no water, this possibility ceases.
Water is a mediator, a balancer between extremes and contrasts, it dissolves what is solid and brings together substances to form new compounds. It strives to be chemically neutral between acid and base, it serves bouyancy between gravity and levity.
Water is a bridge-builder, crosses boundaries, is open and serves all life selflessley, ready to refresh, to heal, to purify or to give solace. It does not discriminate. Every living thing drinks it. Every living creature has a right to it.
It cannot be made separate and owned becuase it is, by its nature, intimately and selflessley connected to all things
Wherever water occurs, it tends to take on a spherical form. It envelops the whole sphere of the earth, enclosing every object in a thin film.
Falling as a drop, water oscillates about the shape of a sphere; or as a dew fallen on a clear starry night, it transforms an inconspicuous meadow into a starry heaven of sparkling drops.
We see moving water always seeking a lower level, following the pull of gravity. Yet, water continually strives to return to its spherical form. It finds many ways of maintaining a rhythmical balance between the spherical form natural to it and the pull of earthly gravity.
Together, Earth, plant world and atmosphere form a single great organism, in which water dissolves, transports and nourishes like living blood. The essential reciprocal vehicle of all life, an unbreakable symbiosis.
Water is seen as a reflective surface possessing colours, hues, textures, undulations and ripples of great variety. The interior of water is perceived/experienced as a mono mass, a clear solid. Yet, this invisible mass has inertia from minute to massive scale, ever moving, never still. Moving along spiralling surfaces, which glide past one another in manifold winding and curving forms. Even within fast flowing water the velocity is unseen unless the occasional trapped air bubble passes by, highlighting the weaving strands of the force. But within this turbulence of movement there are basic geometrical shapes. These shapes and patterns have been used by various cultures for philological decoration.
"The Invisible made Visible"
Neolithic / Celtic symbolism of telluric forces.
A very large percent of bronze age artifacts are found clustered within watery realms. bogs, ponds, wells and lakes. They have been ritually disposed of. There are many decorative motifs on these objects. The most prominent one being the triskel, or triple spiral motif. This, being the cross section of a water jet soon after its creation. An axiom of flow form structure, this classic symbol is found across Eurasia and appearS throughout pre-history in all Matriarchal/Matrilineal societies.
"Neolithic and Bronze age art, with its extreme formalism, does not represent a primitive stage in the evolution of art. Nor an apparent step backwards away from the admirable and living representations of the art of the cave painters. It is highly sophisticated and expresses the realisation that important ideas can be conveyed by extremely limited symbolic forms."
JD Burnell 1937, art critic
"By the laws of the recapitulation of the life history of a species in the life of an individual, 'modern art' is sometimes a form of atavistic groping and the tendency of some European artists, when the power of realistic representation has been obtained, is to no longer accept this as the final achievement in art. The atavistic searchings of these artists are the reversions to the mental traits of remote ancestors, rather than immediate progenitors. Hence, such gropings, usually done in a state of acute consciousness, lead subconsciously to abstractions that may be inherited racial memories of the great Celtic cultures and of still earlier races of hunter/artists."
George Bain, 1951
References:
| 1 | Sensitive Chaos | Theodore Schwenk | 1962 |
| 2 | Pagan Celtic Ireland | Barry Raftery | 1994 |
| 3 | Snowflake | Kenneth Librecht | 2003 |
| 4 | Neolithic and Bronze Age Scotland | P.J. Asmore | 1996 |
| 5 | Perfect Vortex | New Scientist 23rd/8th | 2004 |
| 6 | Spiral Patterns | Aiden Meehan | 1993 |
| 7 | Keltic Art | Ruth & Vincent Megaw | 1989 |
| 8 | Water Learning | Institue of Water Dynamics | 1995 |
| 9 | Mystic Spiral | Jill Purce | 1974 |
| 10 | Royal Graves of the Scythians | State Museum of Berlin | 2008 |
| 11 | Cetlic Art - Methods of Construction | George Bain | 1951 |
| 12 | Celtic Mysteries | John Sharkey | 1975 |
| 13 | Ornament | Eva Wilson | 1996 |
| 14 | Early Christian Monuments of Scotland | J. Romilly Allen | 1903 |
| 15 | Art Forms in Nature | Karl Blossfeldt | 1928 |
| 16 | Art forms in Nature | Ernst Haeckel | 1904 |
| 17 | Keltic art | J. Romilly Allen | 1904 |
| 18 | Art of the Celts | Lloyd-Jennifer Laing | 1992 |
| 19 | Historical Atlas of the Celtic World | John Haywood | 2001 |
| 20 | Permaculture Designers Manual | Bill Mollison | 1998 |
| 21 | The Stones of Wisdom | Ronald P Vaughan | 1992 |
| 22 | Dawn of the Gods - Cretan Society | Jacquetta Hawkes | 1968 |
| 23 | Barbara Hepworth | Barbara Hepworth | 1970 |
| 24 | Treasures of Hungary | Keltic Museum, Hochdorf | 1998 |
| 25 | Bronzes of Luristan | Cernuschi Museum | 2008 |
| 26 | Greek Art | Gisela Richter | 1959 |