On Friday, 1st March in Working Artist Studios, a packed house sat enthralled as locally-based, multi-award-winning sculptor, artist and traditional boat-builder, Holger Lönze, presented a talk on a small segment of his work.
Holger is an established bronze sculptor based near Ballydehob, Co. Cork. Since moving to Ireland in 1995, he has widely exhibited in Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. He has worked on art in the public domain since 1997.
His body of work to date is so huge, that Holger wisely decided to cover only the last five years’ work, reflecting the age of his son, Lochlainn. The talk, slide show and mini-exhibition comprised of public commission sculpture projects; traditional boat-building, such as Lough Neagh sailing boats and coracles, Dunfanaghy curachs and West Kerry naomhógs; Medieval Christian bells; and late Bronze Age bronze horn replicas. I wonder what he does in his spare time!
The talk was fascinating, bringing us through the process behind the art-pieces, but also the logistical problems and their – often ingenious -solution. He introduced us not only to his wonderful work but also a cast of characters direct from Beckett!
As the thunderous applause burst forth from the awed-ience, I realised that what had seemed like a mere fifteen minutes had, in fact, been over an hour and a half!
A small exhibition of Holger’s work is currently on display in WAS.
Thanks to Tomasz once again for photos.