Peter Randall-Page Interview

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VisualArt:Now talks to sculptor Peter Randall-Page, whose work includes the Eden Project's famous "seed" scuplture - billed as "one of the biggest sculptures in history made from a single piece of rock".

"The Seed" by Peter Randall-Page,
installed at the Eden Project

Tell us something about your background.

I spent my childhood in rural Sussex and as an only child spent a lot of time alone, exploring Ashdown Forrest collecting natural objects and drawing.

My father was a model maker and worked in a shed in the garden making dioramas for museums often assisted by young art students.

My dyslexia precluded anything that involved lots of reading and writing although I loved literature and poetry as well as natural history.

How did you first get into sculpting?

I grew up in an environment of drawing and making so sculpture came very naturally to me. It appealed to me as a way of combing intellectual curiosity wit a love of form and making.

Which sculptors have influenced you the most?

The work of Constantin Brancusi was a revelation to me when I visited the reconstruction of his studio in Paris in my teens. And as a student I corresponded with the Japanese/American sculptor Isamu Noguchi who was an important influence and had himself been a pupil of Brancusi.

Who else has been influential to your life and work?

The greatest influence has probably been from anonymous artists. Ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan, Indian and Prehistoric European sculpture have give me the most profound and enduring artistic nourishment.

What's the strangest idea for a piece you've ever had?

Possibly a floating rock entitled 'Monument to Mortality' which I made for an exhibition called 'On Site' for the Arnolfini Gallery in 1977.

The rock was supported in a wooden cradle floating in Bristol docks. As
the wood became waterlogged the rock gradually sank during the duration
of the show.

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