Of the many stories and recollections that Brian has told me, one in particular struck  a chord with me. Whilst I am pretty sure that no practicing artist has ever before used swarf as a working material to create artworks, I was fascinated when Brian told me how the grinders used to amuse themselves by sticking matchsticks, damaged blades and the like, into the swarf  as it builds up on the squat boards, creating strange creatures with horns, and manes. I thought, this amusement, or pastime, must have brought a little light into the dark dirty grinding workshops across the city. So spontaneous, so creative, so serendipitous, so artful.

 

Matches, in the early nineteenth century, were often called Lucifers. They were known as such because Lucifer was ‘The bringer of light’, otherwise known as Venus, the morning star. I  decided to make a squat board, with an oil painting of the planet Venus upon it, and persuaded Brian to use it, as he would normally, and to demonstrate what they used to do, to make the swarf creatures. The result is ‘Lucifer’, Venus rising from a bed of swarf, the body of a strange horned creature – the bringer of light.