Martin Brockman
In 1986 Martin began to travel Britain with the Theatre Group, Welfare State International. They worked with imagery and words rooted in the vernacular celebrating communities which ranged from fireside stories in village halls to metropolitan spectaculars…. Martin experimented with a wide variety of materials from print and paper through to large experimental clay and kiln sculptural firings. Throughout this time he created his own block-prints, wood carvings and pottery.
In 1994 Martin created a woodblock song cycle titled Glutton and the Illusionist, which illustrated the changes to his own community brought about during Thatcher’s Britain, featuring characters of misrule rooted in a tradition of broadside ballad and chap books, mixed with the political pressures as communities were torn apart during the 90’s.
More recently Martin, along with fellow enthusiast for trees and working of wood, Simon Page, have worked together on a number of occasions. They brought their artisanal skills to a Chelsea Flower Show Gold-medal winning garden, built the ‘Wild Wood’ for two theatre productions of ‘Wind in the Willows’, built kilns at Wakehurst Place, carved a sculpture trail for Victoria Park Ashford, and raised funds for charity with two Christmas Capers installations in Robertsbridge.
More recently they held a collaborative exhibition, ‘Give Us Back Our Eleven Days’ at the blackShed Gallery and installed giant woven figures across the Mansion Pond for Wakehurst Place’s Glow Wild festival, 2018.
Their recently established partnership, Brockman & Page, seeks to focus on school and community facing initiatives by connecting these groups to their local landscapes and celebrating our role as both participants and stewards within the natural environment.
Both artists undertake solo and other collaborative projects, Martin has recently designed and run school workshops as part of Outdoor Studios across Kent for The Ash Project, and Simon has sculpting commissions at two woodlands in Sussex.
