Zachary Eastwood-Bloom British, b. 1980
Pen on Paper
21 1/8 x 21 1/4 in
Approximately 170 x 160 cm overall
On his inspiration and working method, Eastwood-Bloom stated:
'At the time I made the piece I was reading two books, one on the 18th century Italian engraver Piranesi and his etching process and Moon by Oliver Morton, about the history of human relationship with the moon. I see this drawing as an extension of the Divine Principles show, which was going to have a moon in it but it didn't quite fit, so I felt compelled to make it as to satiate an urge. I like the idea of creating from a reductive common denominator, in this case a straight line. I was looking at Pirenesi's etching and the way he created tonal variation from densities of lines. My approach is a digitised version of that where I created an image of the moon from 6 separate layers which collectively create a resolute crosshatched image.
It is gridded in nine parts because I wanted to make it fairly large, the relationship between the viewer and the drawing is important. The moon has a subtle gravitational effect on all of us and I wanted the scale of this image to acknowledge that. The grid is also important to me, as it represents an attempt to understand; it's a symbol of learning or quantifying something. The moon is way more primal than that though, it is like there is something godly about it, something unknowable."
Zachary Eastwood-Bloom's work explores diverse materials including ceramics, glass, bronze, jesmonite, sound and video. His interest lies in the intersection between the physical and the immaterial and the historical and the cutting-edge. He references classical imagery, adopts digital aesthetics and uses leading technologies. For one body of work, Eastwood-Bloom used 3D software to scan busts from the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, which he digitally manipulated before 3D printing and casting into clay: the process transitioned from the physical through the digital resulting in the physical.
Eastwood-Bloom’s MA project was exhibited as part of the Crafts Council’s touring exhibition Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft in 2010 and 2011 and he has exhibited with the V&A and the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
He produced a commission for the Jurassic Coast in Dorset for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and was shortlisted for the British Ceramics Biennial Award in 2013. Eastwood-Bloom produced the first sculptural edition for the Royal Academy of Arts and he has been selected for the Jerwood Makers Commission 2015.
Eastwood-Bloom has produced a public commission for the London office of Marex Spectron and recently finished working on a commission for Aviva Investors in collaboration with Campbell Architects to create a work that is integrated into the façade and interior of a new building in Hanover Square.