‘My work is about not overlooking the Divine – finding the transcendent in the everyday. Simplifying your life and finding the grace in it.’ Randy Klein
From Friday 6 September to Wednesday 30 October, Chichester Cathedral will be hosting an extraordinary exhibition of more than 100 sculptures by the artist Randy Klein. The exhibition will be staged in the Cathedral’s North Transept and the Cathedral is open daily with free entry.
This fascinating collection of sculptures is titled ‘Moment to Moment – A Pilgrimage’ and Klein describes the exhibition as: ‘a journey which transforms the playful depiction of the ‘stuff’ of daily life – the exuberance of childhood, family, relationships – into a spiritual awakening’. The 100 steel sculptures form an enormous storyboard, like a series of stills from a film clip, showing a progression from carefree childhood to the experience of adulthood, and finally to a more spiritual self, who is less bound to the material world.
The writer and critic Claudio Piersanti, describes Randy Klein’s work as ‘pure passion’. Klein has exhibited worldwide and currently has works in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate, and the Brooklyn Museum. The ‘Moment to Moment’ exhibition has previously been shown in Italy and also at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, and Rochester and Ely Cathedrals.
Ruth Poyner, speaking for Chichester Cathedral says: ‘This exhibition is both thought-provoking and beautiful, and we are delighted to be able to host it in Chichester Cathedral – it is a fitting space for Klein’s themes of transformation and transcendence.’
Klein’s sculptures are made out of steel, copper and enamels. They take shape initially from a series of quick sketches by the sculptor, followed by trial sculptures made out of wax. Klein then uses a white hot flame to cut through sheets of steel and forges the sculptures into shape in his London workshop. This lengthy process is fascinating to the sculptor whose artworks often explore themes of metamorphosis and transformation, he explains: ‘The process of art is all about transcendence, taking raw materials and with love, patience and delicacy we imbue them with a quality beyond themselves.’
