David Iona

Photograph by Lorn Hennessy

Born in 1935 Iona had a childhood rich in experience. Iona's first true sculpture, made in his thirteenth year, was a mother goddess image carved in chalk from the old quarries of Bluebell Hill in Kent. The carving was carried out in the field below the escarpment in which stands the Stone Age dolmen Kits Koty. The figure, about the size of a cooking apple, was engendered by a profound 'peak experience' in that ancient place. Chalk landscape,especially where there are standing (or fallen) stones, remains an abiding inspiration. Iona has sculpted many free standing life size figures but his main concern over the years has been to pursue the frontal and 'pictorial' Archestructural (archetypal/ structural) image, be it dimensional or collage.

Iona joined the Royal Air Force in 1953 to serve as a medic and after three years he went into the Merchant Navy. This move gave Iona the opportunity to see the world and be exposed to aspects of many cultures, which would later influence his work and thought.

In 1957 his love and study of Zen Buddhism began. Today, Iona is a Zen Buddhist teacher. He was ordained at the Hsu Yun Temple in Hawaii by Ch'an Master Ji Din(deceased) and given the name Shi Kung. Iona signs his graphic and foamworks with his seal denoting his Zen name 'Emptiness':     

His first one person show was an outdoor sculpture exhibition commissioned to last for three months, at the Basildon Arts Centre, Essex, quite an accolade for a young artist. Sadly many of the large works were vandalized beyond repair.

Assignment of works to Annely Juda Gallery, London. 1969

One person shows: Haus am Lutzoplatz, Berlin.1970

London Ecology Centre. 1990

Group shows: Beecroft Art Gallery 1965

Festival of the Celtic Spirit 1991

He has works with:

The Ritman Library, Amsterdam, Holland.

The Institut Francais, London

The Michel Odent Health Institute, London.

Schumaker College at Dartington, England.

The Order of Sancta Sophia, Pennal, Wales.

Celtica, the Celtic cultural centre at Machynlleth, Wales.

The National Heart Hospital, London.

Stabilus, Koblenz, Germany.

The Rudolf Steiner Camphill School Chapel, Aberdeen, Scotland.

The Anglokom Institut, Waiblingen, Germany.

Iona has works in private collections in the U.S.A., Germany, Japan, Australia as well as the U.K.

David Iona is a self-taught sculptor. Working in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England.

 

"There is a profound structural principle at the foundation of David Iona's (Rev. Shi Kung) Archestructures which he has refined over many years with dedication and conviction. This is the mystical Zen insight that "form is emptiness and emptiness is form" The artist succeeds in demonstrating this principle with his Archestructures in a most unusual way; not only by showing the material structure that embodies the Zen intuition but simultaneously pointing to this same principle at the very foundation of our existence".

Shi Chuang Zhi

Abbot, Zen Buddhist Order Hsu Yun

 

 

 

 
 
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