Giusseppe Lund WHAT Sculptor & Architectural Metalsmith WHERE Keffer Gallery, 128 Queen St., Almonte, 256-2676 Studios in the UK and Lanark County Installations around the world (www.metalgarden.ca & http://homepage.mac.com/metalgarden/) SHOWS Metalworking Demonstration, Arts Fusion, Almonte, May 30 - June 2 (Keep your eye on the Old Post Office Building in Almonte) WHY "I love the physicality of working with metal - it dances with me" Previous Artist Trading Cards

Giusseppe Lund - Metal Gardener
By Sally Hansen

Giusseppe Lund is an internationally renowned sculptor and architectural metalsmith who works with hot metals and glass from his studios in the UK and Canada. He has recently created a studio at a Lanark County farm with his two daughters and his wife Jane. Jane has family roots in South March, and the decision to relocate to Canada was based on the "wonderful sense of extended family - the inclusivity" that Giusseppe felt when he visited her family. "I felt that if people are like that, then communities must be like that."

He was not disappointed. "I was knocked sideways by how much community is here. When our first container arrived, so did the neighbours. They just showed up and helped and brought food."

Giusseppe's Metalgarden

Giusseppe is reciprocating to the community at large. He showed up at Almonte's Keffer Gallery with armloads of his wonderful Metalgarden sculptures that bend in the wind, and installed them outdoors for the opening of the Rosemary Leach show on May 10th. Back home, his personal landscape is overflowing with the metal and glass pieces he incorporates into his gardens and borders and places in pots on the deck and along the fence. He points out the special advantages of embellishing a northern landscape with permanent garden art. The vibrant, sparkling colours of the forged and oxidised stainless steel and bronze sculptures are particularly welcome in the long dark stretches between short growing seasons.

The use of water and light is becoming increasingly important in his work. By combining hot worked glass with forged metal pieces, Giusseppe opens up inner surfaces and heightens the illusion of freely growing organic forms. Much of his work comprises large pieces installed in public sites worldwide, frequently as the result of design competitions. His website at www.metalgarden.ca affords the best views of major pieces such as the Queen Elizabeth Gate at Hyde Park in London (a national tribute to the late Queen Mother), and his powerful, full-size sculpture of a Viking Longboat installed on the coast in Largs, Scotland. Happily for readers of theHumm, we can watch for an imminent example of his architectural sculpting during renovations to the Old Post Office in Almonte.

Educating Giusseppe

"When I was studying philosophy and math and music at university in the UK, I saw a film called Savage Messiah about French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. I couldn't stop talking about how moved I was by his total absorption with what he believed in, and how his hands and his imagination could create a lasting impression of his relationship with the world. My music and my writing seemed so ephemeral in comparison. In response, a friend gave me a little bag of stone carving chisels, and I got a piece of Portland stone and chiselled for 13 hours straight. It was a personal explosion for me - a gut feeling that this is a way of having a better relationship with life." He quickly discovered that he preferred the interaction with metal to sculpting in stone.

Frustrated by the conventions of formal metal design in England, still dominated by 18th and 19th century styles, he studied in Germany and Italy. Working with industrial smiths and their large hammers, he grew fascinated with the fluidity of steel under heavy pressures. There he developed the confidence to forge his own style, mixing forged elements with modern techniques of welding and cutting.

He loves working with glass for many of the same reasons that he chose forged metal as his primary medium. "I started life very much as an academic in both arts and sciences. Being able to picture what was happening theoretically made it easier for me to learn how to work with both metal and glass. The beauty of glass is that you can look inside it; I leave the internal process visible so you can see where the surfaces are knitting together. With metal, I can visualise the molecules as they respond to hammering and squeezing and twisting - it dances with me."
He still considers himself an academic. He loves how math is linked to living and growth, and this love helps explain his fascination with the garden and what it symbolizes to humans.

Educating the Hesitant

"Metal can be anything that you want it to be" proclaims Giusseppe's website. I'm dubious. Giusseppe will be teaching a week-long course at the Mississippi Mills School of Arts this summer, and I express some trepidation that it would be too physically demanding or too expensive to become a metalworker. He is exasperated at my response and says that is why he loves teaching kids - they are so open and fearless. He explains that the course is an opportunity to have fun, and to learn about the possibilities of a wonderful medium that has been explored for centuries by itinerant artisans carrying their equipment on the back of a donkey. The course brochure elaborates (www.algonquincollege.com/arts): "This course is an opportunity to explore the versatility of hot and cold formed metal with an emphasis on sculpture connected with our concept of "the garden" ¼ Students will learn the principles of hot metal work, using heat and tools; discover beauty in the shape, texture, form and movement of metal interacting with applied heat and shaping tools."

Educating Each Other

Giusseppe's Metalgarden website reveals a lot about its academic artist creator. "I love the Web because I love to involve the public in my projects!" He is particularly interested in conceiving projects that involve children. His face glows with pleasure as he describes a marvellous Tree of Birds project that culminated in the installation of a 9-metre-tall metal tree adorned with over 600 birds in the town square of Slough (near Windsor, UK). He set up a workshop in the square and helped kids use gas torches to colour the metal bird shapes that they had designed. The community owns the sculpture in a unique personal sense, and Giusseppe carries the satisfaction of a connection to a community as well as to a work of art.

He invites participation on his website as well as in his courses and community projects. He uses his website and email (giusseppe@metalgarden.ca) as his principal means of interaction with the public and potential clients. It facilitates his mobility as he works across continents, and enables him to be connected to a vast community of lovers of art and gardens, from whom he draws inspiration and emotional sustenance, and with whom he shares his passion for and knowledge of metalwork sculpting.

Grab a chance to stop in at Keffer Gallery, or click on www.metalgarden.ca.