Irish Arts Review

Liam Flynn: past and presentAuthor(s): Roger BennettSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 28, No. 3 (AUTUMN [SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2011]),pp. 124-125Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23049512 .

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CRAFT & DESIGN LI AM FLYNN PAST AND PRESENT

1 HAM FLYNN and KEVIN O'DWYER BELOW SEA LEVEL 2010 Pholo© Kevin O'Dwyer

2 EBONIZED OAK VESSEL 2011

3 SPINE VESSEL 2009

4 BARREL FORMS 2009

5 INNER RIMMED VESSELS 2011

Liam

Flynn's vessels are sculptural, tac

tile, understated.

His shapes are subtle -

round but not circular, del

icately undulating, dynamic.

We are intrigued by the detailing: rhyth

mic carvings, double rims. And by the

mystery inside his enclosed forms, con

tainers of darkness...

The craft of woodturning has evolved

at an astonishing pace since the middle of

the twentieth century, and its status is now

firmly established with gallerists, collectors

and curators. Liam Flynn is one of the most

respected artists in the field internationally. Still in his early

forties, his achievements are hugely impressive. His work is

in the permanent collections of the V & A, the National

Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; he has

won the California Gold Medal in the RDS National Crafts Competition, and the woodturning prize on eight

occasions. He was the inaugural winner of the Crafts

Council's Bursary in 2005. One of his vessels features

on a 2011 Year of Craft postage stamp.

The seeds were sown early. Flynn's father and

grandfather were craftsmen and he gravitated natu

rally to the workshop adjoining the house in

Abbeyfeale, County Limerick. From making furniture as a

boy, he was introduced to woodturning by a friend and was

immediately enthralled and captivated. He taught himself,

devouring woodworking magazines and books.

In the 1980s when he started to turn, highly figured

woods were in vogue, a piece's worth often largely deter

mined by the intrinsic attractiveness of the wood. Flynn did

not have ready access to such exotica and they had little

appeal for him anyway. But he could easily and cheaply get

plainer, humbler woods. And he knew about green turning,

the shaping and finishing of a piece from unseasoned wood,

turning it thin and allowing it to distort naturally as it dries

out, instead of the more traditional practice of rough-turn

ing and waiting for the wood to season before finishing it.

So he began as he has continued, sourcing woods

locally, especially oak, turning them green. He has a mar

vellous ability to foresee how a piece of wood will move

as it dries, visualising process and product. Sometimes he

may not like a piece immediately after completing his part

Liam

Flynn: past and present

Roger Bennett considers Liam Flynn's

dedication to the art of woodturning as his

retrospective at the Hunt Museum, Limerick,

marks the finale to the year of craft

124 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I AUTUMN 2011

Liam

Flynn past and present

Roger Bennett

1 LIAM FLYNN and KEVIN O'DWYER BELOW SEA LEVEL 2010 Photo© Kevin O'Dwyer

2 EBONIZED OAK VESSEL 2011

3 SPINE VESSEL 2009

4 BARREL FORMS 2009

5 INNER RIMMED VESSELS 2011

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.198 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 06:59:58 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

of the conversation, but is delighted by the wood's subse

quent response: symmetry mutating into asymmetry, each

piece assuming its individual identity. David Ellsworth, the American artist, was a major influ

ence on the evolution of Flynn's hollow forms. His vessels,

extraordinarily thin-walled, with the internal turning done

through impossibly narrow openings, accelerated the devel

opment of artistic woodturning. This rhymed with Flynn's own aspirations. Frustrated by the limitations of open

shapes, wishing to get away from the bowl as a utilitarian

object, he saw how hollow forms could be considered as

sculptural pieces in their own right (Fig 2 ).

Throughout his career he has explored the same idiom,

adjusting the contours, volumes and surfaces, the theme of

each series defined by his focus on one particular element.

in vinegar to the oak. The viewer is not distracted by any

thing dramatic, so you can see the subtleties in them almost

immediately. Recently he has sometimes added small areas of red: minimalist interventions, yet very striking. When not

ebonising, he fumes many of his oak pieces, giving a rich

depth to the brown.

And from black to white: bleaching or whitewashing oak, ash and holly. Black and white are combined in an

ongoing still life series, pairs of small white pieces dis

played on black bases. Then black and silver: the contrast

is exploited in his collaboration with silversmith Kevin

THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER FLYNN HAS EXPLORED THE SAME IDIOM, ADJUSTING THE CONTOURS, VOLUMES, AND SURFACES, THE THEME OF EACH SERIES DEFINED BY HIS FOCUS ON ONE PARTICULAR ELEMENT

lie plays constantly with vertical profiles, from the 'line as

volume' of his enclosed vessels, some pregnantly bellied,

some sedately rotund, to others with sterner more cylindri cal bodies. Recent barrel forms seem to sit down, squatly

and defiantly: in theory, he says, they shouldn't work, bur

the movement in the wood imparts a sense of dynamism and

what could have become lumpenness is counteracted by

their surprising lightness (Fig 4). Some of his most innovative work has been done on the

openings. His renowned 'inner rim', one rim inside another

like two collars, creates the illusion that a second smaller

vessel is hiding inside the outer one (Fig 5). His use of carv

ing is masterful: the fluted pieces are particularly strong,

with bold channels flowing from rim to base counterpoint

ing the vessels' lateral roundness. These are pushed to

the limit in recent spined vessels, where the fluting is reduced to two flowing ridges like finely pinched clay (Fig 3).

He began to blacken his pieces early, ebonis

ing them by applying a solution of iron filings

O'Dwyer, in which undulating silver fronds

appear to grow magically out of a black

pot. A couple of these pots have been

cast in bronze (Fig I) and more of f this is planned - a fascinating M

development which may well /: lead Flynn down a new path in / tlio next phase of his career.l

Liam Flynn Retrospective and M* New' Hunt Museum. Limerick Mf 5 November - 30 December 2011

g Roger Bennett is a professional f woodturner /

_

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