Everyday Alchemy: Contemporary sculpture
28 Apr 2014 - 10 Jan 2016
Terence Koh
Untitled (A New World Order Lies in this Golden Age), 2006
Glass, wood, bronze, gold leaf, resin
unconfirmed: 1550 x 851 x 851 mm, 100 kg
Lent by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, courtesy of Frank Gallipoli 2007© Terence Koh, courtesy Peres Projects, Los Angeles/Berlin
Untitled (A New World Order Lies in this Golden Age), 2006
Glass, wood, bronze, gold leaf, resin
unconfirmed: 1550 x 851 x 851 mm, 100 kg
Lent by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, courtesy of Frank Gallipoli 2007© Terence Koh, courtesy Peres Projects, Los Angeles/Berlin
This display brings together a selection of contemporary sculpture by international artists who use everyday objects and a wide range of materials to explore questions of value.
In several of the works, the museum plinth has become part of the sculpture itself, indicating the artists’ interest in methods of display and how they are used to elevate the status of an object.
Everyday 2009 by Subodh Gupta brings together a collection of common Indian stainless steel kitchen items, presented on a marble plinth. Similarly, Haris Epaminonda gathers an assortment of found objects and images, which she arranges on plinths and beneath cases like a museum display in miniature.
Rachel Harrison incorporates elements of a protective barrier into her assemblage, confusing our distinction between the sculpture and the display furniture that surrounds it.
Roger Hiorns employs chemical or mineral processes as a means of representing transformation and change.
Like a process of alchemy – in which base metals are turned into gold – all of these artists, in various ways, transform our perceptions of an object’s value, creating curious and playful juxtapositions and unexplained encounters to bring about their own everyday alchemy.
Curated by Ann Coxon
In several of the works, the museum plinth has become part of the sculpture itself, indicating the artists’ interest in methods of display and how they are used to elevate the status of an object.
Everyday 2009 by Subodh Gupta brings together a collection of common Indian stainless steel kitchen items, presented on a marble plinth. Similarly, Haris Epaminonda gathers an assortment of found objects and images, which she arranges on plinths and beneath cases like a museum display in miniature.
Rachel Harrison incorporates elements of a protective barrier into her assemblage, confusing our distinction between the sculpture and the display furniture that surrounds it.
Roger Hiorns employs chemical or mineral processes as a means of representing transformation and change.
Like a process of alchemy – in which base metals are turned into gold – all of these artists, in various ways, transform our perceptions of an object’s value, creating curious and playful juxtapositions and unexplained encounters to bring about their own everyday alchemy.
Curated by Ann Coxon