Charles Hadcock at the Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University

Year: 2006
Location: Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
Type: Solo Exhibition
Publication: The Independent
Author: Peter Chapman

Article Text: Charles Hadcock is a man of monumental imagination and ambition. Although he sometimes works on a smaller scale, his heart, you suspect, is in the massive cast-iron and bronze sculptures he is increasingly being commissioned to produce. Take Passacaglia, a 20-ton monolith, currently adorning the beach at Brighton.

Accordingly, when the Peter Scott Gallery decided to put on a show of Hadcock’s work they had to have some of his bigger pieces even if they wouldn’t fit in the building. The solution has been to station four of his largest sculptures in the grounds around the gallery, leaving the indoor space free to take a selection of more moderately sized pieces as well as some prints and ink drawings.

Hadcock’s sculptures are not wholly organic, but look instead as if he has taken a natural form and subjected it to some sort of unearthly torque. The resulting pieces are full of twists and movements, as if bent out of shape by a giant and then discarded, before falling heavily to earth.