Set against a dark backdrop of laurel, the sun falls upon the fungal extrusions of The Puff of the Pastryenriching the swirls of colour that run through it like sauce through ice cream. Cavities puncture its layers allowing the sunlight through, casting dappled shade upon the levels below, echoing the woodland canopy above. The sculpture is a conversation between industrialised processes and natural forms that draw us into its internal spaces where voids and surfaces are of equal concern.
Working with a palette of materials that allows him to build in reverse, Andrew Sabin doesn’t get to see what he’s created until it is revealed at the end of his multilayered process. Made of pigmented concrete and steel - grown one section at a time - The Puff of the Pastry was built outside-in from pastry marge. This industrial material, designed to be ultra plastic for lamination between layers of dough in the creation of puff pastry, allows Sabin to sculpt the void. Afterwards, concrete is poured into the empty spaces and finally, the margarine is washed away to reveal the final form. Both the process and the form have geological echos; systems of caves and subterranean chambers carved from rock by the action of wind or water, at once timeless and an expression of the passing of time.
Andrew Sabin (b.1958) studied at Chelsea College of Art between 1979 and 1983 where he taught as a Senior Lecturer between 1997 and 2006. From 1997 his attention was focused predominantly in the public realm, installing the 'C-bin Project' on the coast of France, making the 'History Wall' for the Town Centre in Whitstable, 'Square-' and 'Round Bridges' for Ravensbury Park and 'The Calibrated Ramp' in Bracknell. Between 2006 and 2010 he made 'The Coldstones Cut' in the Yorkshire Dales which won the Marsh Award for Public Sculpture in 2011. Andrew Sabin is the recipient of many awards including several from the Arts Council England, The Henry Moore Trust, Arts and Business, SEEDA, RSA art for architecture award, The Aggregates Levy, The Bridgehouse Trust, The Lorne Award, The Marsh Award, ABSA and several awards from The British Council.
6th Edition (2022), Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Fulmer, UK
7th Edition (2023), Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Fulmer, UK (Guest Curator: Jenn Ellis)
