Plinth installation: John Espin and Tim Harrold

John Espin and Tim Harrold are currently both collaborating on a commission for the Essex Network of Artists' Studios (ENAS).

Eight artists across ENAS have been chosen to make a piece to go on one of four 90x45x45cm plinths. Their inspiration is based on four themes chosen through prayer from a whole pile of phrases based on biblical images. These are:

• Does it roar like the Lion?
• Open your mouth
• A white stone. A new name. What is it?
• Can you count the stars?

Their 45x45cm square is itself divided into four dioramas depicting these themes. See http://timharrold.tumblr.com for photographs of the piece as it develops.

Tim writes that they: 'are both excited by this project and we're a fair way into the process. The piece has to be completed by the end of this month, and will be shown with the other plinths at the Hadleigh Old Fire Station Studios in September. Our idea was chosen, apparently, without hesitation from the panel, which to us is a complete blessing and confirmation that we're on the right road with this. We don't know where it will lead, but are happy to have simply been selected and are of the mind that anything else will be a bonus.'

Tim has a BA (Hons.) Degree in Expressive Arts, Brighton Polytechnic (1982-85). He creates allegorical dramas in boxes and freestanding sculptures, assembling found objects and using multimedia. He takes photos of clouds, buildings, ruins, rust, lichens, leaves, bark, water, signs, lamps, telegraph poles, and people, using a range of cameras and has an interest in illustrative ambient film. He writes found poetry, lyrics and prose, using found words a lot in his visual work. He combines elements of all the above in making contemplative installations - where the conceptual and the metaphysical meet, there is the perceptual.

John works with mixed media and says: "My work exists somewhere between painting and sculpture, despite being wall-mounted and marked with colour. Anything can be a starting point – an object, a word, found printed images or text, a photograph ... The work is often carved, polished and sanded, resulting in highly varied relief surfaces. Areas of the work form visual bridges, allowing tentative connections with other spaces. Layers of colour seem to tease, having been applied and taken away, fighting with materials and form. The layering and peeling back of surfaces: the way in which time acts on the world around us, concealing and unveiling by turns. Areas of paint crack to expose another time: a memory is revealed, a place, a captured moment in life ...'

They will be exhibiting together at the new Wellhouse Gallery (www.wellhousegallery.com) in Horndon on the Hill in November. John has a website at www.john-espin.co.uk and Tim's work can be seen on his photoblog - http://timharrold.tumblr.com - and via Twitter on @HarroldTim. Tim is facilitator of a local networking organ - www.transformationthurrock.com - and currently also works part-time for the My Hope UK initiative.  

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Steve Scott - Sun Poem.