Collections

Rainmaker

Sculptor: Cocker, Doug, RSA · b. 1945

This piece can be seen to be a continuation of the exploration of landscape throughout Cocker's career. Cocker explains the inspiration behind the work and the genesis of the piece in letter to Collections Assistant of 2007-01 "The work was initially made as part/ of a body of work which showed in/ 2003 at the JOHN DAVID MOONEY FOUNDATION/ in CHICAGO. The show was titled "LEAVING/ JERICHO'...I considered RAINMAKER/ too fragile a piece to transport to the USA/ so it wasn't in the show./ It was made as a sister work to the / 'LANDSONGS' suite (which did show in Chicago)/ and derived from notions of weather and/ landscape indigenous to my rural/ surroundings in Angus/ so references can be seen within/ the work to land contours, clouds, rain/ and movement./ having made LANDSONGS as framed/ relief sculptures, I was intrigued to/ devise a way of making similar/ construction in the round. I used a/ rack structure and evolved the work/ so it registered from all angles.." (letter in Cocker's file). Cocker has produced a number [4 or 5] of versions of this work, all very similar but using different woods; 'Rain Maker II' for example is in ash, and subsequent works are distinguished by a suffix of a Roman numeral.