Gálhidy Péter
The caltrop grows in some parts of the Tisza river. This aquatic plant has characteristic leaves, and its fruit of typical four-horned form was ground, and they made a type of bread long ago or even today. It is also named water chestnut. The horned and pricking fruit hides in the mud, if you step on it, it really hurts. Had I made a sculpture of original proportions, it would have such a long pin, but it is a form of sacred meaning for me, so its cusps are shorter. . .
I carved from one piece of poplar wood. I needed to deepen the hole inside across a narrow slit. I had to invent some special tools. For artists difficulties are not troubles. On the contrary, it is a great joy: ‘I can make it!’ You can see a tiny point of light in the real depth if the sculpture: it is a slight mirror.”
In the slope of Sashegy, the old house hides in the dense vegetation. “ I grew up in a Kőbánya house with garden. Next door, there were the remnants of a cooper workshop, with axes, saws. I brought a planer from it. We try to have responsibility towards our environment: preserving rainwater, collecting garbage selectively, choosing what we eat. Even I mate the stove here. It is summer now, but we burn the litter in it.”
The lemon-balm tea is delicious. The house is filled with surprises. Above the bed, a heart-garden, made of matchsticks. A camera obscura is at the window, hidden in a drum. Another one is at the workshop, invoking the artistic concept of Géza Samu. “I am a great admirer of him. Staring from the country, he authentically applies the material culture of the village life. My roots are urban, and my parents were engineers. Even so, his work is important to me, it means a parallel inspiration. The old wooden fork makes me remember.”
The never-used broken barrel stave, the 40-pound weight truncated by improper casting, a bag of shoddy pearl buttons found at a doorway received a new life. The title of the flaked sculpture is an Indian dish: ‘sour cream delight’. In the middle of the weight is a hole, a tiny mirror is at the bottom.
“As a sculptor, I am interested in the dimensions.” The grooves on the pleated brass plates are breaking, colour and reverse sides are running parallel. A flattened reed is optically emerging from the space.
“How can a plant live? I am excited by the tranquillity! I am looking for what they have related to the human culture.” A blade of grass can express anything. The letter “V” is a Sanskrit symbol of “Virya”, the masculine life energy itself.
There is no plant without water. Two reed roots reach the imaginary water level. From the middle, a fresh reed is emerging upward. With some magic, a tulip motif of three points comes to life.
„I make an effort to understand my objects.” What is the message of this pike? The mammoth pine pike emerges from the heavy ground, its material was found around the Nagyatád Art Colony. As a cone of a volcano, it could be even the Badacsony. Its basement consists of mud from the nearby Nagyatád creek, covered by limestone powder. A charred wood on the top makes the experience real. „My friend has a copy. He does not dare to dust it, just blows a bit. He tells that nowadays there are two to clean it. When passing the object, his two year old son blows on it a big with the same precaution.
21/7/2011 Budapest
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I’ve a painting from Gàlhidy (witch Gàlhidy… I don’t know… ;o)
Hi, My name is Chantal Fleury and I’m from Québec
I have since a while an artistic painting with me and the signature is by Gàlhidy but don’t know if you could help me on this… Should be somebody from your familily ancestors… So I can’t attach some pictures here but I can sand it to you by email address… Hope you could help me…
Thank you in advance,
Chantal Fleury
Artist : Gàlhidy
Dimensions : 12 x 10
No date on it seem an off old…
Back # : 4558
Back mark up : U.H. A-7240
Dear Chantal,
here you can send the the pictures and we will forward to Gálhidy Péter. There are some artists in his family, who knows…
Regards,
Ágnes Koós
kiskepgaleria@gmail.com