Robert Orchardson
08 Sep - 16 Oct 2005
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Robert Orchardson
Perfect Vacuum
8 September - 16 October 2005
Robert Orchardson makes sculptures inspired by science fiction imagery and futuristic design, using low tech materials such as wood and resin or found objects. He has a nostalgia for the utopian tendencies of the modernist period and focuses on shapes and objects which defined that aesthetic.
In the front space, “Mimoid”, 2005, references the “Tulip Table” designed by Eero Saarinen, but the title of the piece is taken from the novel "Solaris" by Stanislav Lem. In the novel “mimoid” (a word created in the novel from “mimic”) describes the strange forms that emerge and disolve back into a living and thinking ocean, on the planet Solaris. The other large sculpture in the front space, “Integral Model”, 2005 was inspired by “We” a futuristic novel written in the 1920’s by Yvgeny Zamyatin (thought to be a precursor to other famous novels such as Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and Huxley’s “Brave New World”) where a society is controlled to a mathematical precision and lives in surroundings made only of glass so everyone can be “seen”. Orchardson recalls the depiction of the utopian design but makes his piece not from glass but, in contrast, using the natural form of wood as if creating a prototype for an alternative idealism.
The shapes from “Cathedral”, 2005, were inspired by part of a modernist cathedral in America and “Untitled I”, 2004 by a building in Brasilia. In reusing these Modernist forms it is as if he is again, creating a prototype or transitionary work which suggests an alternative use or way of looking. The transitionary quality in his work is also found in the way he uses found objects in works such as “Presence” 2005 and “Remnant” 2005, where discarded metal objects are transformed into sculptural forms.
In the first floor space, “World Without Worlds”, 2005 consists of two elements, a circular wall piece with a geometric pattern made by taking a caste from a found object which is hung on the wall behind a screen, an ongoing element of Orchardson’s work. It was made using imagery taken from the “Stargate” sequence of the film “2001 : A Space Odyssey”, famous for its psychedelic special effects. Orchardson uses wood for the screen to contrast with the high tech imagery in the film. The screen brings to mind Op Art from the 1960’s, but Orchardson also had in mind a screen as used by modernist architects as a means to divide space. As well as creating new space the screen also acts as a means through which other objects can be seen and transformed in relation to each other. In this piece, as in “Presence”, 2005, the space between two objects becomes as important as the objects themselves.
Robert Orchardson, originally from Glasgow, is based in London and graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2004. He has recently completed two commissions in Scotland for a new College of Dance in Dundee and for Dundee City Airport. He is currently showing in Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 2005 and this is his first solo show in London. He has been invited to present a commission for the Economist Building, London in November 2005.
Robert Orchardson
Perfect Vacuum
8 September - 16 October 2005
Robert Orchardson makes sculptures inspired by science fiction imagery and futuristic design, using low tech materials such as wood and resin or found objects. He has a nostalgia for the utopian tendencies of the modernist period and focuses on shapes and objects which defined that aesthetic.
In the front space, “Mimoid”, 2005, references the “Tulip Table” designed by Eero Saarinen, but the title of the piece is taken from the novel "Solaris" by Stanislav Lem. In the novel “mimoid” (a word created in the novel from “mimic”) describes the strange forms that emerge and disolve back into a living and thinking ocean, on the planet Solaris. The other large sculpture in the front space, “Integral Model”, 2005 was inspired by “We” a futuristic novel written in the 1920’s by Yvgeny Zamyatin (thought to be a precursor to other famous novels such as Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and Huxley’s “Brave New World”) where a society is controlled to a mathematical precision and lives in surroundings made only of glass so everyone can be “seen”. Orchardson recalls the depiction of the utopian design but makes his piece not from glass but, in contrast, using the natural form of wood as if creating a prototype for an alternative idealism.
The shapes from “Cathedral”, 2005, were inspired by part of a modernist cathedral in America and “Untitled I”, 2004 by a building in Brasilia. In reusing these Modernist forms it is as if he is again, creating a prototype or transitionary work which suggests an alternative use or way of looking. The transitionary quality in his work is also found in the way he uses found objects in works such as “Presence” 2005 and “Remnant” 2005, where discarded metal objects are transformed into sculptural forms.
In the first floor space, “World Without Worlds”, 2005 consists of two elements, a circular wall piece with a geometric pattern made by taking a caste from a found object which is hung on the wall behind a screen, an ongoing element of Orchardson’s work. It was made using imagery taken from the “Stargate” sequence of the film “2001 : A Space Odyssey”, famous for its psychedelic special effects. Orchardson uses wood for the screen to contrast with the high tech imagery in the film. The screen brings to mind Op Art from the 1960’s, but Orchardson also had in mind a screen as used by modernist architects as a means to divide space. As well as creating new space the screen also acts as a means through which other objects can be seen and transformed in relation to each other. In this piece, as in “Presence”, 2005, the space between two objects becomes as important as the objects themselves.
Robert Orchardson, originally from Glasgow, is based in London and graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2004. He has recently completed two commissions in Scotland for a new College of Dance in Dundee and for Dundee City Airport. He is currently showing in Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 2005 and this is his first solo show in London. He has been invited to present a commission for the Economist Building, London in November 2005.