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FEATURED CONTRIBUTORSFine Art
A heartwarming conceptual project is taking place this week, as Richard Stone invites the public to bring a bouquet of flowers to a strange ‘re-enactment’ of an unnamed memorial. Subvert the longstanding British tradition and bring a bunch to Richard Stone’s Reenactment of a Memorial’.
An installation artist whose recent work has resonances of Felix Gonzalez-Torres's conceptual art (think unmade beds and 'exhibitions' that consist of piles of sweets which are taken, candy by candy, by gallery visitors) and the Joy Division covers designed by Peter Saville, Richard Stone's newest process will be a gathering of flowers for a grand, anonymous and nameless 'memorial'.
For 'Reenactment of a Memorial', participants are invited to bring an unmarked bouquet to the gallery and lay it in succession with others over the course of one weekend. Accumulated flowers and the act of laying them down will form an emotional relic, a powerful resonance given to a blank gallery space
The project looks to explore the British tradition group acts of grief and reflection, with no stonemasonry involved. A contemporary twist is added to the age-old ceremony with the transparent plastic wrapping of the flowers, a reminder of recent public mourning for figures such as Princess Diana, distilled to a basic form of outpouring and revenance. The project takes place over a Friday to Sunday weekend starting on the 22nd January 2010.
A graduate of the Central Saint Martin's Fine Art MA, aside from bouquets, Stone's favoured materials have included earth, wax, carpets, fireplaces and polyethylene.
'Reenactment of a Memorial': Participants are invited to bring an unmarked bouquet to Madame Lillie's Gallery, 10 Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, London, N16 6BD.
22nd January 6-9p. Continues and ends 23rd and 24th January, 12-6pm.
