Concatenation: interconnected things

13 – 18 January 2018 at City Arcadia Gallery, 32 City Arcade, CV1 3HW, Coventry

Imagine you are standing in my 3-D sketchbook. These urban constructions are small scale experiments which have the potential to be upscaled into large size outdoor sculptures in long-lasting materials. 

The new serialized, repetitive forms were created with existing forms. Again I turned to found objects and reclaimed materials which are fragments of the real world. Precious materials like marble are combined with throwaway materials (my homage to Arte Povera). The pieces seem to be floating in a white universe, in an area between 2-D and 3-D shapes.

This site-specific installation hints at the history of Constructivism at the beginning of the 20th Century when artists started to take on the role of engineer. Materialist experiments and metaphysical thinking went hand in hand. Tatlin’s corner counter-reliefs around 1915 symbolized actual relations between material, space, positive and negative, light and shadow. They played around with gravity and tension. The emphasis lay on material-volume-construction and not on the representation of the real world. But by just being they were part of reality.

The significance of the found fishing floats is purely in their shape and colour details. Perhaps on an unconscious level they show how everything is connected in our universe: the ripples in the water produced by the floats could be compared with the theory of the butterfly effect and string theory.

Tatlin, 1913; ‘Let us place the eye under the control of touch’.

An experimental sculpture workshop led by me took place on Thursday 18 January, 1 – 4. This workshop was devised for artists and art students. On offer were low value, unusual materials in an informal setting. There were no set outcomes. In a playful manner abstract ideas were converted into small 3D works.