0:00:08 > 0:00:13This ancient tree that has fallen into a river in North Wales
0:00:13 > 0:00:17is about to find new life as works of art.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22A real idea has spirit energy in it, and they compel me to make them,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25and they actually bring that energy with them.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29David Nash is a sculptor with an international reputation.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34He has made his name, not from working in clay, bronze or stone, but in wood,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37using cranes and chainsaws.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40He also uses heat and fire to create artworks that are displayed
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and cherished in many countries around the world.
0:00:47 > 0:00:55Sequoia trees have been growing for thousands of millennia, in their forms,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59but now I walk in a forest and I'll say, "My, that's a Nashy one, isn't it?"
0:00:59 > 0:01:06Shapes that are features of the North Wales landscape resonate in his sculptures.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12David Nash's base for the last 40 years has been perhaps the most
0:01:12 > 0:01:17unlikely setting for an artist whose work graces museums, public spaces
0:01:17 > 0:01:19and private collections worldwide -
0:01:19 > 0:01:24the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30Today Nash has workshops in the town's industrial units, employing
0:01:30 > 0:01:35a number of local people to create the work for a global demand.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39The town, its history and its weather are all woven into art
0:01:39 > 0:01:46which is made with the elemental forces of nature, and a deep understanding of wood and trees.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04The weather phenomena of Blaenau is one of the most essential ingredients
0:02:04 > 0:02:08of what I love about the place, and I deeply love the geography,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11the fact there is a community here at all.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15It grew here because of the slate.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19You can see we're at the end of the valley here, and the wet air coming
0:02:19 > 0:02:23off the Irish Sea just lifts to 800 feet here, and that's where it rains.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27We have an average 120 inches of rain, and it's a bit like
0:02:27 > 0:02:31people talk about rain here like the Eskimos talk about snow.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34I actually heard somebody say, "It's coming down straight today."
0:02:34 > 0:02:39There's a particularity about the angle of the rain.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44It's a phenomenon, and ironically, this is where all the roofing slate is coming from.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47It has roofed many buildings all over the world.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52I wasn't really expecting to be living here,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55but at the end of my art school years, "Where am I going to be?"
0:02:55 > 0:02:59I discovered I could buy somewhere here very cheap.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01That meant no rent, no mortgage.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04I didn't mean, really, to stay. Found a cottage here.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08The best thing that I did was to stay, was to stay here.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13And, I think, for a lot of sculptors, place, location of where they are,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15is very important. It runs deep.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20And particularly with Blaenau, which is like an enormous sculpture.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23These beautiful diagonal lines have just
0:03:23 > 0:03:28found themselves out of millions of loose pieces which have just been...
0:03:28 > 0:03:35Just tumbled down, thrown away, but they've ended up with a very precise geometric form.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40The tips look as they do from the process of their making, and that to me was my fundamental
0:03:40 > 0:03:44clue on how to work - keep my mind on the process
0:03:44 > 0:03:47and let the resulting object take care of itself.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52So long as the process was clean and true and pure, I could trust that
0:03:52 > 0:03:57and let the object be and not worry it after I'd finished the process.
0:03:59 > 0:04:05In 1968, David Nash bought an old chapel, Capel Rhiw.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08At a cost of £200, this would enable Nash to keep his overheads
0:04:08 > 0:04:13to a minimum and realise an ambition to fuse life and work.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18Where a congregation of quarrymen and their families once stood
0:04:18 > 0:04:20singing hymns, Nash replenished
0:04:20 > 0:04:27the space by populating it with his sculptures and a family of his own.
0:04:27 > 0:04:35He married an artist, Claire, and together they turned this chapel into a family project.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40If something interesting is going on somewhere, however far away
0:04:40 > 0:04:44from London or New York or wherever, people will hear about it.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Now with two young boys, life and work was one and the same thing.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55Major galleries began to be interested and made the long trek
0:04:55 > 0:04:57to the Nash studio and home.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03People from the art world came to see the chapel, the work that was going on there.
0:05:03 > 0:05:10And there was always something to see, because he was seriously working.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14People liked the fact that he had made his house
0:05:14 > 0:05:18and he had made his kids' toys.
0:05:18 > 0:05:24We were like a sort of team of artists when the boys were little.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27They were involved with everything we did.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30This picture is of William in David's arms
0:05:30 > 0:05:34while he's sawing a piece of wood, and just that lovely thing
0:05:34 > 0:05:37of them being able to be involved in what we were doing.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas's father was a minister at Capel Rhiw,
0:05:50 > 0:05:55and one day, while he was the MP for Blaenau in the 1970s,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59he was amazed by what he saw going on inside this chapel
0:05:59 > 0:06:01that he'd known as a boy.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05I just walked up and looked through the windows and saw these...
0:06:05 > 0:06:08obviously, what were works of art.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11And I was immediately captivated by it all.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14And I got to know David and I keep being reinvigorated
0:06:14 > 0:06:17whenever I meet him or see his work.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25I'd always had it drummed into me by my father that this is where
0:06:25 > 0:06:33our roots were and, of course, this particular chapel was the great temple of the Presbyterian Church.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Y Trefnyddion Calfinaidda and... Well, that's, of course,
0:06:36 > 0:06:41"Holiness, sanctity behoves your house."
0:06:41 > 0:06:45that would be the translation. But, of course, holy in religion
0:06:45 > 0:06:47is something spiritual.
0:06:47 > 0:06:55Art, I think, is a close cousin of that drive towards the spiritual
0:06:55 > 0:06:56in human life.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And I think it's very appropriate. Obviously, that's why he did it.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04He kept it there because he saw a synergy
0:07:04 > 0:07:07between what the chapel was in the past
0:07:07 > 0:07:11and the spiritual activity that was here, and the creativity,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14verging on the spiritual, which is in his work.
0:07:15 > 0:07:22I love the idea that there is in this chapel now a new congregation.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25David tells me that there are at least 400,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29which must make it the best attended chapel for miles around.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Ever since David Nash settled in Blaenau Ffestiniog,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37wood has been more than just a raw material to shape.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Throughout his career, it's led him to a deeper understanding
0:07:41 > 0:07:46of the properties of trees and the natural processes at work.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52This fallen oak tree is about to be transformed into sculpture.
0:07:52 > 0:07:59David Nash's artistic vision enables him to identify unique forms in each tree.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04Over his 40-year-long career, he has fashioned over 2,000 sculptures.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Understanding the tree and allowing the forms he makes
0:08:07 > 0:08:12to retain the essence of their origins has been his life's work.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17I would never take a tree that has no reason to take it down.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21So I can only really engage with it once it's down, and then I go over it
0:08:21 > 0:08:23like a dentist, looking at its teeth,
0:08:23 > 0:08:29checking the rot spots and just what these forms are.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34It's the art of making a sculpture.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38For me, it's trying to make an object which is like more here,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and there are ways of doing this.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46I never polish the surface because my eye just slides off it. The rough surface.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51It needs to have holes and cracks in it which will draw the viewer in.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56It's got to have an animation which is actually in the original tree.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01You have got to allow the echo of the source
0:09:01 > 0:09:02to resonate.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05The work leads me.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10I've always been aware of possibilities, they just wink at me
0:09:10 > 0:09:14all over the place and, if I'm alert to them, I can catch them.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19A team of local tree surgeons are brought in to extract the wood from the river.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27This is dangerous. These are very, very heavy pieces of wood,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30and these people are very, very skilful.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38There are all these aspects which put, for me, value into that particular piece of wood.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42One, that it is local to where I am.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47I've known this patch for 15 years...more.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52And to be able to put this amount of focus into a piece of wood,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54that becomes a very, very special piece of wood.
0:10:00 > 0:10:06This tree is probably 100 years old, so it's got a story, its own story.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Its form is because of where it is,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and because of where it is, it's fallen down.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15That's all part of its narrative.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20I make mainly abstract work but there is a strong narrative
0:10:20 > 0:10:27to the sourcing of the material and that narrative goes into the form.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31And I try and always source my wood from trees
0:10:31 > 0:10:36which have become naturally available, like this.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40It just feels ethically OK for me to source my wood
0:10:40 > 0:10:42from this place.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Depending on the circumstances, the wood from the fallen tree
0:10:48 > 0:10:53can be worked on at the location or be brought back to the workshops in Blaenau Ffestiniog.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58David Nash works on the sculptures with chainsaws.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Nash has become a master of the chainsaw,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and uses it as adeptly as a painter would use a brush.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13He makes large fires that he controls to achieve exactly
0:11:13 > 0:11:18the right amount of charring to produce the deep black surface he requires.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29These forms are then shown in major galleries such as here at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36In 2010, David Nash was the subject of a significant exhibition
0:11:36 > 0:11:38showing over 200 sculptures
0:11:38 > 0:11:41in a retrospective spanning his whole career.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54Moving to this grey, wet town after art college in London,
0:11:54 > 0:11:59it was the perfect antidote to London's competitive art scene.
0:11:59 > 0:12:06Coming to Blaenau was like coming to somewhere where nobody was watching.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11I was very naive and I started building a big tower here,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15because obviously that was very evident. But in a way, I didn't...
0:12:15 > 0:12:20I felt I was separate enough to try... To try this out.
0:12:20 > 0:12:21Hence the first tower.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25It was like an epic statement. Like trying to write a whole opera
0:12:25 > 0:12:29or a huge philosophical statement, and this moving through
0:12:29 > 0:12:34these various layers going up through the legs and the guts
0:12:34 > 0:12:38and into the head, and then into the heavens.
0:12:38 > 0:12:44And I built it very badly out of scrap stuff, and it blew over.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47And there was a cable coming from a communal aerial which
0:12:47 > 0:12:52went to all the TVs in Blaenau Ffestiniog, so that knocked that out.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55And I heard, only recently, somebody said, "Oh, I remember that,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59"We used to say when we got interference, 'It's the modern art!'"
0:12:59 > 0:13:01From these humble beginnings
0:13:01 > 0:13:04in bits of scrap wood,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08David Nash's sculptures are now valued in the tens of thousands of pounds.
0:13:09 > 0:13:16As Nash's reputation grew on the world stage, the sculptures developed in scale and ambition.
0:13:16 > 0:13:22And it was a local lorry driver who was equipped to help the artist work on a larger scale.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25I was advised that there was a chap in Blaenau
0:13:25 > 0:13:29who had a hire crane, called Yonks, he was known...
0:13:29 > 0:13:31There are great on nicknames in Blaenau.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35And he came, and not only did he just present me with...
0:13:35 > 0:13:40Deliver the wood, he was actually able to hold it up for me, you know?
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Like a two-ton piece of wood. There's no way I...
0:13:43 > 0:13:49I would normally have to have carved all the weight off it before I managed to pull it up myself.
0:13:49 > 0:13:55So this was a revelation, that there was somebody here in Blaenau, and he turned out to be somebody who was...
0:13:55 > 0:14:03Just was a brilliant natural engineer, and also very enthusiastic about what I was doing.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Yonks has been a very important part of this
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and of the actual growth of the work, of what his...
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Not only his equipment but his intelligence and his enthusiasm
0:14:15 > 0:14:17and his creativity have actually...
0:14:17 > 0:14:21What he's brought to the work, to what's possible.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Because of the size of some of the pieces and the hard work
0:14:24 > 0:14:27in actually moving them, when you have something
0:14:27 > 0:14:32that can actually lift them, it just opens a lot of possibilities
0:14:32 > 0:14:35and it just makes life so easy, doesn't it?
0:14:35 > 0:14:39But you don't just get a nice square block, do you?
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Yeah, there are some pieces which are easy...
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Quite easy to handle, but, you know,
0:14:45 > 0:14:50there's a variety of shapes and, you know, you have to figure out
0:14:50 > 0:14:56how can you physically lift it safely and without doing any damage?
0:14:56 > 0:15:02When Yonks first helped me, it was just him with his truck and a crane.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Now he's got ten articulated lorries,
0:15:04 > 0:15:11a very flourishing business and his son is now very active.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15And he's a whizz with a crane.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Over the years, because of the interest in David's work,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23I've got to know other people's work.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25It's just give us a bit of interest into art.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29You come to know who they're by.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33I suppose if I hadn't been carrying David's work,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36I wouldn't have given it a second thought.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40But if I see a piece, I think, what would it be like to carry that
0:15:40 > 0:15:42and how would we go about doing it?
0:15:42 > 0:15:45You have that thought in the back of your mind all the time.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52The cube, sphere and pyramid appear often in Nash's work,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55seen here in Chicago.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59And here, in the prestigious Tate Gallery in St Ives.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02And it's the landscape of Wales that might have influenced
0:16:02 > 0:16:05the young David Nash, whilst on family holidays
0:16:05 > 0:16:10to his grandparents, who lived near Blaenau Ffestiniog.
0:16:10 > 0:16:17I began to be aware that they were actually in the mountains
0:16:17 > 0:16:19that I've grown up with.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24There's a...from looking from Port Madog,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29looking east, there's the Cnicht mountain.
0:16:29 > 0:16:35That runs into the Moelwyn Mawr.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Then there's the Moelwyn Bach.
0:16:39 > 0:16:46And so, obviously, I can see that there are shapes.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51I didn't make these as a result of knowing that.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55But I feel that as a child these forms are probably living into me.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58With geometric forms, which are universal forms,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02they live in us all, and they don't belong to anybody.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09In 2009, the National Eisteddfod in Bala
0:17:09 > 0:17:13recognised David Nash's contribution to the arts in Wales
0:17:13 > 0:17:15with a special exhibition.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18He is also represented in the collection
0:17:18 > 0:17:22at Amgueddfa Cymru, National Museum Wales.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26We have got a body of work ranging from one of his most important
0:17:26 > 0:17:29early pieces, right through to recent drawings
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and a wonderful sculpture multi-cut column.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36So we've got a significant body of David's work from across his career.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41Nash, in the National Museum of Wales, is symbolic of somebody
0:17:41 > 0:17:45who has chosen to make his entire career based in Wales.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49I remember early in his career, any curator such as myself
0:17:49 > 0:17:53wanting to make a project with him, rule number one is,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56you've got to come and see me where I am and look at my work,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00and understand it in the context of my locality.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04So he's demonstrated that such a career is possible in Wales.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09By choosing to live in Blaenau, North Wales,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11by in a sense cutting himself off - not really,
0:18:11 > 0:18:16because actually he's very aware of what's happening in the art world.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18But being able to have that distance,
0:18:18 > 0:18:24and I suppose a kind of a peace. Being able to just make the stuff
0:18:24 > 0:18:28that comes out of him and not just be unduly influenced by fashion
0:18:28 > 0:18:32and what other people say or think or do.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37But yes, very much his life and work being intertwined.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42If one reflects on David's career,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47you get a fantastic sense of both consistency and range.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50He is rooted in Blaenau Ffestniog.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54He has an incredible sense of continuity with some of his projects
0:18:54 > 0:18:55in that locality.
0:18:55 > 0:19:01But also, one's conscious of the global reach of his work,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04and how, through his approach to the work,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07he has engaged communities around the world
0:19:07 > 0:19:12in a methodology that is absolutely extraordinary in my view.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17So that as well as coming up with significant pieces, objects,
0:19:17 > 0:19:22drawings, installations, in their own right, he's also generated
0:19:22 > 0:19:29this sense of sharing ideology, values, experiences.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34And I think that's, in a way, the real significance of the work.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Many people are involved in projects overseas.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Often it's construction workers who engage with the art long before
0:19:41 > 0:19:45curators and gallery directors see the installed sculptures.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48I think they're beautiful. I'm amazed.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50I've never seen anything like it.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54How did the shapes come about?
0:19:56 > 0:20:00These ones that go up like this are for the rising sun.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05And those ones coming down, are for the setting sun.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10So this is like a flame, and that's like a patch or a wedge, or both, coming down.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Or shadows?
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Yeah, well this is the only one that the sun will shine through.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22So they were cut and shaped for the sunshine itself?
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Where the sun comes up, the sun goes down, yeah.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27I'll be darned.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31David Nash has undertaken many international projects
0:20:31 > 0:20:35throughout Europe, the United States and Japan.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38These events bring people together, as they share a common goal
0:20:38 > 0:20:40to realise major works of art.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Throughout the '70s and early '80s, Nash worked alone.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50But with a global demand for him to exhibit in other countries,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Nash realised the benefits of bringing teams together,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56to create the works overseas.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Evan Shively's woodyard ethically sources its timber
0:21:00 > 0:21:02from this part of California,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05making it the ideal place for Nash to find his raw material
0:21:05 > 0:21:09and work with wood that is not native to Britain,
0:21:09 > 0:21:15such as eucalyptus and the great redwood trees also known as Sequoia.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17I had the pleasure of meeting David for the first time
0:21:17 > 0:21:20maybe three or four years ago.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24I didn't realise we'd been building his candy store this whole time.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28But he did as soon as he drove in.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40It is fascinating in working with him, of course,
0:21:40 > 0:21:42that the conversation goes both ways.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48Sequoias have grown for thousands of millennia in their forms.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51But now I walk in a forest and I'll say,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53"My, that's a Nashy one, isn't it?"
0:21:54 > 0:21:58He lives it, breathes it.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03Every moment of the day or night, it is always percolating.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06This Nash sculpture, the Oculus Block,
0:22:06 > 0:22:10was formed out of a huge root and trunk of four eucalpytus trees
0:22:10 > 0:22:13that fused together as they grew.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16For me, it doesn't really need to symbolise anything.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20The thing is what it is. It could be nothing else in the world.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23I love that idea that David has brought together
0:22:23 > 0:22:26all of these different agencies.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32And then to develop the equipment necessary to cut the edges from it.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37Which were chainsaws, double-ended chainsaws, a motor at each end.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41And I think there was something like 20 feet of chain on those saws.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45With two guys holding the saws, so that they were on lifts,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and as they came down the piece they shaved off these edges
0:22:48 > 0:22:52and sliced off those pieces of wood in one go.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55So you get this incredible surface.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58The chainsaw is just to make a straight cut, yes,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01but also to be able to make one simple gesture
0:23:01 > 0:23:05so you can see the marks of the tool
0:23:05 > 0:23:12going uninterrupted across the face, and to emphasise the simplicity
0:23:12 > 0:23:17of the very minimal nature of his interventions into it.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Almost how little it took,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22with the right insight, to make it into a sculpture.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Other artists have occasionally asked us
0:23:50 > 0:23:54to consider literally the passage of time in their work.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58But I don't think there are many artists who have embedded
0:23:58 > 0:24:02those kinds of ideas in the material reality of their work.
0:24:02 > 0:24:09The centrality of it to David's work is pretty unique.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14David Nash has always recognised that time is an integral element
0:24:14 > 0:24:16to the way he works in wood.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20A lump of wood cut from the base of a fallen oak
0:24:20 > 0:24:23allowed Nash to explore decay and reintegration,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26as the lump was pushed into a nearby stream
0:24:26 > 0:24:31and followed as it was washed down the mountain by successive storms.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35It became known as the Wooden Boulder.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41Eventually it made its way into the Dwyryd Estuary and became mobile.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46The Wooden Boulder is, geometrically, essentially a sphereish thing.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50If it was a cube or a triangular shape, it would be a manufacture.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55But it looks enough like a boulder to be naturally there.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57It sort of is in disguise.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00That's the other thing about my outdoor pieces.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02It's this low visibility.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06I'm not very interested in making big red things outside,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08that shout at you.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11These earlier works, particularly, Wooden Boulder and Ash Dome,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14are very discreet and have low visibility,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17like the wooden boulder, people would walk past it
0:25:17 > 0:25:19and think it was a boulder. That's fine.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24The wooden boulder would travel four miles out
0:25:24 > 0:25:28and four miles back with the tides in the estuary.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32The artist would photograph and film it where it settled,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35until one day, the wooden boulder could not be found.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40After much searching, it was finally declared lost in 2003
0:25:40 > 0:25:43and presumed to have gone out into the Irish Sea
0:25:43 > 0:25:46and even beyond to the Atlantic Ocean...
0:25:47 > 0:25:50..a journey that took 25 years.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55To explore the concept of living and growing sculpture,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59a circle of ash trees were planted in 1976.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02All the time, he's learning what each of these woods does
0:26:02 > 0:26:05and they all work in different ways
0:26:05 > 0:26:09and so he understands how ash reacts in certain conditions,
0:26:09 > 0:26:15how beech reacts and how those woods are used in particular ways.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Through these living works, Nash has a deeper understanding
0:26:18 > 0:26:22of his materials, incorporating the elements more fully
0:26:22 > 0:26:26into his understanding and relationship with wood and trees.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32It is only now, after 30 years of careful nurturing,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35that the Ash Dome is being realised.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40If I was to prune this branch off, if I prune it here,
0:26:40 > 0:26:41it can't grow over the wound.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44If I cut it back here where these rings are,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49that bark has got the capacity to actually heal over the wound.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51If I cut it here, this will rot
0:26:51 > 0:26:54and then you get a rot spot going back into the tree.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Obviously not good.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Here, we've got a very successful healing
0:27:03 > 0:27:05so that was quite a big branch I cut off
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and that has actually grown over and completely healed.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14So that took about 10 years to completely grow over
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and seal itself up, very satisfactorily.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28It's just this gathering of practical, hands-on knowledge.
0:27:28 > 0:27:35It just comes part of the great compost of information
0:27:35 > 0:27:39and feelings and everything that makes up a maturing human being.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43So like a tree, there is an 18 year-old inside here,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46there is a six year-old, which still has an essence coming through
0:27:46 > 0:27:51into how I am now but, hopefully,
0:27:51 > 0:27:57one is learning and becoming a little wiser from all this deeper knowledge,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00out of which one is created.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06At the workshop, massive lumps of wood continue to arrive
0:28:06 > 0:28:10to be transformed into major works of art before they leave
0:28:10 > 0:28:15Blaenau Ffestiniog to go on a journey where they will be seen
0:28:15 > 0:28:19and appreciated in galleries and public spaces all around the world.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26The next generation is already responding
0:28:26 > 0:28:29to the work of the sculptor from the slate town,
0:28:29 > 0:28:31who has brought Blaenau Ffestiniog
0:28:31 > 0:28:34to the attention of the world through his art.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:56 > 0:28:59E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk