Paul Digby: material-process-object

Tuesday 26 March – Saturday 6 April 2019

East GalleryNUA. Free entry: Tuesday – Saturday, 12-5pm

This exhibition documents a public project led by the artist and alumnus Paul Digby between 2016 and 2019. During this period, Digby worked with individuals from the emergency services, including police and fire officers, paramedics and coastguards to create drawings and sculptures that attempt visual parallels with classical sculpture.

This personal collaboration between the artist and the individuals led to works that emerged from the exchange of true stories from the professions; hybrid figures of the everyday human and the heroic, and a celebration of the men and women at the front line of the public sector.

In the same way, Digby’s ongoing work with a range of community groups over the same period highlights engagement as a necessary impetus behind his work, and shows the benefits of collaborative art practice as a vital tool for the practicing artist, and in art therapy for societal wellbeing. 

Working with schools, universities, galleries and museums in each iteration of the project, Digby has created a spiral display of over 700 clay figures which grows with each workshop during of the project. On display in the gallery, the spiral includes approximately 160 figures made with children at Lionwood Infant and Nursery School, Norwich, in February this year. The exhibition is supported with a free two hour gallery workshop.

Paul Digby is an alumni of Norwich University of the Arts, completing his BA in Visual Studies in 1997. East GalleryNUA are pleased to support and present this initiative and exhibition.