‘Free the Penwith 1000’ at the Whitewater

My ‘Free the Penwith 1000’ installation first appeared at the Penwith Gallery in St. Ives in 2023. The 1000 fish were arranged upon low plinths in various groups titled ‘Clique Bait’, ‘Nudge Department’, ‘The Beautiful Ones’, ‘Squaring the Circle’, ‘Against the Tide, ‘In-sein, ‘Committee’, and ‘Leaders and Followers’.

The title, although an obvious reference to the Cornish region and the recent entrapment of people due to lockdown, was a comment on those trapped within peer groups, and the weak of mind, or vulnerable people who become controlled by others. The premise was that by purchasing a sculpture, it was being freed from its deliberate or accidental incarceration. It is also an obvious play upon the term which refers to the unjust imprisonment of groups or individuals. However, the plight of the individuals within this installation is meant to be a playful interpretation of societal groups.

Expressions: well, I have occasionally seen a happy fish, but generally they seem a little concerned, carry an air of deep concentration, or just appear a little grumpy, but with the long history and hard experience of these individuals I would not expect anything else, and have worked with it. The other reference to ‘entrapment’ was that of the stone being bound within the geology of Polyphant in Cornwall for millions of years. It was then released by quarrymen and worked in to various architectural features, to stand the test of time on the facades of a few edifices in Cornwall. After enduring at least a century of winters and fierce storms, it was then, after being replaced by other stones, left ‘fallow’, whereupon I took custody and decided to create something that would allow these stone fish a warm and calm respite in the homes of their admirers after years of hardship. As such, all of the stone is reclaimed, with the exception of the few serpentine pieces, and a majority of the wooden bases are also reclaimed timber. There are also quite a few highly detailed standalone individuals with stone bases.

Some of the fish are rudimentary, using the original shape of the stone to depict the form with minimal interference from me. Others have striking geological features that I have left as part of the design, and others are very highly detailed. Each fish is different in personality and there are no repeats. The stone type, eyes and mouth are the common ‘genetic’ link within them all. The price range reflects the size, the embodied work within each piece, and the rarity of any geological feature. Most of the pieces are in Polyphant, a Cornish greenstone, but there are a few in serpentine from the Lizard peninsular.

As the title suggests there are only 1000 pieces in this collection, and of the 21 on show here at Whitewater, each is numbered and comes with its own ‘passport’, a certificate identifying it as one of the 1000.

Richard Holliday