Barnaby Hosking
15 Mar - 04 May 2013
BARNABY HOSKING
Contemplating Duality
15 March - 4 May 2013
Max Wigram Gallery is proud to present Contemplating Duality, an exhibition of new works by Barnaby Hosking in the \\BACK GALLERY\\.
In the exhibition, the artist explores notions of duality through the apparent schism that occurs when mirror sculptures encounter light, and the poetic metaphors that result from this interplay. In Not Two, gold butterflies populate the wall of the gallery, their wings made up of light and shadow, suggesting a fluttering. Real movement is present in Endless, a hanging thread of diamond shaped gold mirrors, which rotates slowly on its axis. When the specular side of the diamonds intersects with the light, it casts reflections that glide across the walls of the gallery, creating a sense of continuity.
Hosking’s recent work finds its roots in Eastern philosophy’s investigation into the workings of the mind. In the exhibition, the sculptures express the artist’s understanding of processes of thought formation and attribution of meaning. According to Hosking, when a thought is manifested, it enters into the phenomenal world and thus travels from the space of ‘emptiness’ to the world of relative form.
At this point, our conditioning as humans creates duality, as we label the thought as good, or bad. But at its origin, all thought is neither positive, negative, or neutral: It just is.
In the two works presented, the thought’s state of existence is represented by the sculptures’ physical material, gold mirror, which holds within itself the potential for both dark and light. In Not Two, the gold mirror butterflies that fill the gallery space convey a sense of effortless freedom. They have accepted the light and the dark, without which they cannot fly.
Such acceptance of opposites is a continuing theme in Endless. Its form is influenced by the history of modern abstract sculpture in its reference to Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column, but instead of serving as monument, it becomes a reflection on impermanence. Using a circular motion to represent time, the column becomes a means of meditation on the continuity between the apparent duality of birth and death. A reflection is born, to live its journey and to be absorbed back into the shadow. It will be born again, further along the chain, with no beginning, no middle and no end.
Contemplating Duality expresses an idea of wholeness. Numerous units make up each work, which in turn relate to each other to become a unified, breathing entity. The projected light from the column will at times catch a butterfly, reminding us that duality is relative, and fleeting.
Barnaby Hosking (b. 1976, Norwich, UK) lives and works in London. Hosking’s solo exhibitions include Charles Bank Gallery, New York; Patricia Low Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland; Cabinets: Owl, SE8, London; All Men’s Miseries Derive From His Inability To Sit Quietly In A Room Alone, Royal Academy, London; Groeflin Maag Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland. Recent group exhibitions include Intersections: Science in Contemporary Art, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Isreal; Time and Place, Kunsthalle Detroit, Michigan, USA; Dark Matters, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK. Hosking’s works has been shown at: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; 176, London, UK; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany; 2nd Moscow Biennial, Moscow, Russia; Echigo – Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan. In 2009 Hosking participated in La Maison Jaune Residency Program, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, Switzerland.
Contemplating Duality
15 March - 4 May 2013
Max Wigram Gallery is proud to present Contemplating Duality, an exhibition of new works by Barnaby Hosking in the \\BACK GALLERY\\.
In the exhibition, the artist explores notions of duality through the apparent schism that occurs when mirror sculptures encounter light, and the poetic metaphors that result from this interplay. In Not Two, gold butterflies populate the wall of the gallery, their wings made up of light and shadow, suggesting a fluttering. Real movement is present in Endless, a hanging thread of diamond shaped gold mirrors, which rotates slowly on its axis. When the specular side of the diamonds intersects with the light, it casts reflections that glide across the walls of the gallery, creating a sense of continuity.
Hosking’s recent work finds its roots in Eastern philosophy’s investigation into the workings of the mind. In the exhibition, the sculptures express the artist’s understanding of processes of thought formation and attribution of meaning. According to Hosking, when a thought is manifested, it enters into the phenomenal world and thus travels from the space of ‘emptiness’ to the world of relative form.
At this point, our conditioning as humans creates duality, as we label the thought as good, or bad. But at its origin, all thought is neither positive, negative, or neutral: It just is.
In the two works presented, the thought’s state of existence is represented by the sculptures’ physical material, gold mirror, which holds within itself the potential for both dark and light. In Not Two, the gold mirror butterflies that fill the gallery space convey a sense of effortless freedom. They have accepted the light and the dark, without which they cannot fly.
Such acceptance of opposites is a continuing theme in Endless. Its form is influenced by the history of modern abstract sculpture in its reference to Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column, but instead of serving as monument, it becomes a reflection on impermanence. Using a circular motion to represent time, the column becomes a means of meditation on the continuity between the apparent duality of birth and death. A reflection is born, to live its journey and to be absorbed back into the shadow. It will be born again, further along the chain, with no beginning, no middle and no end.
Contemplating Duality expresses an idea of wholeness. Numerous units make up each work, which in turn relate to each other to become a unified, breathing entity. The projected light from the column will at times catch a butterfly, reminding us that duality is relative, and fleeting.
Barnaby Hosking (b. 1976, Norwich, UK) lives and works in London. Hosking’s solo exhibitions include Charles Bank Gallery, New York; Patricia Low Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland; Cabinets: Owl, SE8, London; All Men’s Miseries Derive From His Inability To Sit Quietly In A Room Alone, Royal Academy, London; Groeflin Maag Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland. Recent group exhibitions include Intersections: Science in Contemporary Art, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Isreal; Time and Place, Kunsthalle Detroit, Michigan, USA; Dark Matters, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK. Hosking’s works has been shown at: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; 176, London, UK; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany; 2nd Moscow Biennial, Moscow, Russia; Echigo – Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan. In 2009 Hosking participated in La Maison Jaune Residency Program, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, Switzerland.