Bill Woodrow - John Roberts

Bill Woodrow came to prominence in the early 1980s as part of the much-celebrated New British Sculpture movement. In his early work he challenged the use of traditional materials and techniques by making works from discarded consumer goods or everyday items. When placed in the art gallery, a found object can raise questions about both consumerism and the nature of art itself.;In the 1980s, Woodrow abandoned this approach. He turned to the production of large-scale works in welded steel, complex structures which communicated a sense of impending social collapse. Although the materials had altered, the ideas remained: Woodrow sought to picture the conflicts and contradictions of contemporary society. He continues to express these concerns in his most recent work, elaborate assemblages cast in bronze. In this book, John Roberts explains the artist's recent dialogue with "traditional" skills and materials - which makes his work so distinctive from much contemporary sculpture - and discusses the broader questions of skill, meaning and value in contemporary art.