Rowan Gillespie by Caro Sicking, Dutch Art Critic

The Irish are famous storytellers. But not all stories need to be in words. Sculptor Rowan Gillespie tells his tales in bronze. His stories are as profound and as intimate as every human life can be. He tells us about James Joyce and W.B. Yeats. He tells us about the Great Famine that threatened and cost over a million Irish lives in the 19th Century. The big theme sculptures express important issues for man. The small ones tell the story and worries of a single life, Gillespie’s own.

Like so many artists Rowan Gillespie feels the inner urge to sculpt. To him work and life are one. Sculpting to him is organising the chaotic world by giving form to his thoughts and feelings.

Art and Craftsmanship

Rowan Gillespie is a craftsman as well as an artist. In fact the craftsman is essential to realise the intensity of expression the artist desires. Gillespie’s work can be divided into two parts, the individual and the collective stories. Both parts rest on two pillars, one the artistic, the other, the craft.

The significance of the fact that he casts his bronzes himself might not be obvious to the layman, and it is certainly more important and unusual than most art lovers tend to think.

Big Themes

Let’s first look at Gillespie’s big sculptures, the profound stories. Most famous at the moment is probably the Famine sculpture at Custom House Quay, Dublin. It is a national monument, drawing attention to starvation in the world today. It reminds the Irish of their own famine history. Gillespie made each individual of the group so very compelling. It is virtually impossible to pass by without being shocked, moved or, at least, provoked to think.

Famine

These sculptures are more real than reality itself. Gillespie exaggerates, like Grünewald in his Isenheimer Altar, human proportions: length of arms, boneyness of cheeks, hollowness of eyes. He exaggerates in a modest way. You don’t seem to notice these exaggerations, but they have their effect on the impression the sculptures make. By doing so the bronzes become famine itself and there is no way anyone can pass by, untouched.