David Harber

David Harber was born in London in 1957. He grew up in Ipplepen in South Devon, England, where he was educated at the progressive Dartington Hall|Dartington Hall School . 
After leaving school, Harber worked as a potter, trained as an apprentice thatcher and worked as a mountaineering guide. He then converted a Dutch barge into a travelling theatre and for 8 years sailed the waterways of Europe. While converting and maintaining the barge, Harber developed and honed the metalworking skills that were instrumental to the creation of his mainly metallic sculpture 
== Career ==
Harber's first artwork was an armillary sphere, inspired by seeing a sixteenth century sundial in the back of a friend's car and several visits to the History of Science Museum, Oxford|Oxford Museum of the History of Science. Actor Jeremy Irons happened to spot the armillary sphere at the Henley Festival in Henley-on-Thames and liked what he saw so much that he stopped and asked to buy the piece .
Encouraged by this purchase, Harber started making Sundial|sundials in the 90s - armillary spheres but also wall sundials, horizontal sundials and increasingly, sculptural sundials of Harber's own design, all using metals like bronze, brass and stainless steel. The oevre gradually expanded to include sculptures and water features as Harber went on to create a business building artworks in metal for private, corporate and public clients all over the world.
Scientific principles and classic designs remained a key inspiration for Harber, who revels in creating elegant contemporary artworks from ancient ideas , Harber has created two visually appealing contemporary reworkings of the classical orrery for example. He has also acquired a reputation for weaving playful optical illusions into his designs, often by using the reflective surface of polished stainless steel which reflects or distorts the viewer and surroundings.
One notable Harber piece is a recreation in solid bronze of an astrolabe described by Tudor mathematician John Blagrave in his work The Mathematical Jewel. Harber undertook the recreation after discovering that Blagrave was his ancestor .
The studio and workshop is based in Oxfordshire where a team of technical designers, CAD operatives, engineers and craftsmen create almost all of Harber's artworks in house.
===Public commissions===
David Harber artworks that can be viewed by the public include:
* Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College, Oxford – vertical sundial (2000)
* Dorney Lake, Eton College|Eton College School - armillary sphere in stone circle (2005)
* Zabeel Park, Dubai - woven metal cube sculpture (2005)
* Goodenough College, London (2006)
* Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park drinking fountain , first new drinking fountain in Hyde Park for 30 years (2009)
* Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College, Oxford – Moon Dial (2010) 
* Whitman College, Princeton University – vertical sundial (2011)
* Buscot Park, Oxfordshire – the Faux Fall, a series of highly polished stainless steel water walls that appear to be a cascade when viewed from afar (2012)
* Marie Curie (charity)|Marie Curie Cancer Care, West Midlands Hospice – Stainless steel obelisk, Stainless steel chalice (2012)
* Hotel du Cap|Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, France – Shivakashi granite water feature and champagne cooler (2013)
* Liberty Center, Ohio, USA, various public sculptures and water features (2016)
* RAF Brize Norton, Gate Guardian - a sphere of latitude and longitude lines representing the earth, with four of Brize Norton's key aircraft types flying around the sphere (2017)
* Emerald Gardens, London - sculpture referencing the site's history as a postal sorting office (2017). See also: list of public art in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
* Gabriel Square, St Albans - Public Wall Art (2017)
* Festival City, Doha, Qatar, seven public sculptures (2017)
* Sculptures for Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu|Taikoo Li Mixed Use Development, Chengdu, China
* Oxford Trust, Oxfordshire – 'Ohm' entrance sculpture for science centre (2018)
* St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)|St John’s College, Santa Fe – only working version of Tycho Brahe Equatorial Armillary Sphere (2019)
* Al Thuraya Planetarium, Katara (cultural village)|Katara Cultural Village, Qatar - motorised Orrery (2020)
== Awards ==
* Six times winner of the Royal Horticultural Society's Sundries Trophy for excellence of presentation at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
* 2016 Awarded Queen's Award for Enterprise - International Trade
* 2018 Bronze Medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 
* 2019 Bronze Medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This Chelsea garden was designed to showcase sustainable woodland planting in cities 
* 2020 Awarded Queen's Award for Enterprise - International Trade 
==Personal life==
In 1997, Harber married Sophie Kuipers. They have three daughters: Maya, Freya and Romany. Harber currently lives in a converted mill house in Oxfordshire, England. 
Category:1957 births
Category:People from London