The Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood
Acquired from the above on 24th May 2000

Julia Kelly & Jon Wood, The Sculpture of Bill Woodrow, London, 2013,, illustration in colour of the larger cast pl. 184

Bill Woodrow’s Regardless of History marks an important stage in the development of the artist’s œuvre as it was the first time he conceived and cast a work in bronze. As he concedes, ‘I hadn’t used bronze before because of art history baggage, but I wanted the sculpture to have this monumental presence’. The sculpture had been commissioned for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, where it was unveiled in 2000.

The present work is a quarter-size version of the Trafalgar Square sculpture. It comprises a head placed on a plinth, whose eyes and ears are obstructed by a book and the searching tendrils of a tree’s roots. The sculpture is a powerful symbol of man’s continuing and stubborn inability to learn from the past as we persevere regardless of history. The book and the tree are long-held emblems of the accumulation of knowled🧜ge.

The present work also illustrates the powerඣ of nature as the tree rests supreme atop head and book, conquering man and civilisation. Woodrow is articulating our place in the natural order of things, insisting upon the importance of humility, knowledge and understanding.