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subscribe with RSSjotta gained access to the show prior to its opening, when we snatched five minutes with seminal British sculptors Bill Woodrow and Keith Brown, as well as the curator, Peter Kardia, who taught each of the 28 artists exhibiting. Each artist brought a work from their student days and a recent work, resulting in a fascinating retrospective where Richard Deacon, Richard Wentworth and Richard Long, sit side by side.
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| Bill Woodrow (1971), RichardDeacon, Pater Kardia in discussion at the show, Keith Brown and MAgic Carpet (2010). (Click any image to enlarge it) | |
Bill Woodrow, who’s work is now housed at V&A, Tate and Henry Moore Institute, studied at St Martins from 1968-1971. As he places the final touches on his early piece, he explains to us, “It’s about geographical location and 3D dimensional illusions, and 3D physical presence. The physical stick is in the gallery in an urban setting, the photograph is of a rural setting, and the reflection of the stick in the water, create three ways of presenting the same thing at the same time.”
What was his tutors reaction to the work back in 1971? “He’s there why don’t you ask him?!” Replies Bill, laughing and pointing across the gallery as Peter Kardia walks towards us. Bill promptly runs away as Peter comes over and without introduction launches into an analysis of Bill's student piece, Untitled, 1971-
“When one looks at a photograph there are some things about it that one's not directly conscious of. Here one does not enter into the photographic world, it’s more a vibration between the physicals world and the photographic world, and the reflection is an inbetween state of affairs. One is being made aware of ones perceptions.”
“As I continually say, in normal behaviour one likes to look at things and slot them into the familiar. Art says no, it keeps your toes.” Peter turns to Bill’s later work, Revelator 3 from 2006, he points out that it allows a “haptic identification of objects, you’re made to move around something and feel the physicality of it. You become entangled in the space.”
“It also use the visual gestaults, when I look at you [he sizes me up unnervingly], you appear as an object, then I continue and make a unity with the background, this is a visual gestault. The artist who does that in painting more than anyone is else Cezanne….”
He continues on this subject enthusiastically until he's gently prompted towards discussing the curation of the show, “I tried to pick out artists who I thought would give a different perspective.”
The works in the show span two generations of sculpture, from St. Martins sculpture to Environmental Media at Royal College. As such these courses have produced a wide variety of practising artists, and the show reflects a range of mediums.On the other side of the room Keith Brown is polishing the glass on his digital prints, Magic Carpet (2010). Now Professor of Sculpture and Digital Technologies at Manchester Metropolitan University, Keith studied under Peter Kardia at the RCA between 1972- 1975, and is now one of the foremost digital sculptors working in Europe. “Magic Carpet is a 3D integral image, positioned with both top and bottom perspective, I thought it was appropriate for Floor To Sky."
There’s a 30 year gap between his exhibited works, The Clones (1980) are two identical groups of trees. The trees have been sliced, so there are even and odd groupings. "The Clones were made just after I left college, and were the beginning of my work with digital. It’s organic replication systems in terms of cell division."
"30 years later, it's Magic Carpet top and bottom view, you’re seeing both works flipped.” When one stares into these virtual creations, faces appear amongsy jungle animals, parrots, goat horns, while the bottom view reveals a carnivalesque cacophony, apparently containing 260 virtual objects and 15.5 milion polygrams, "Not that that’s of any interest!" Keith laughs, "It was generated in a cyber environment, so forms just pass through each other, the shapes are shaded but they don't cast shadows, so there is real depth to the image. And I made it last week!"
"Its not virtual reality but real virtuality" Keith finishes somewhat lyrically, "all of these forms are created in the virtual environment and brought back into real space."
Check out From Floor To Sky and some the exciting sculpture projects associated with University of the Arts London and the Tate Britain. Read more about these here.
Ambika P3, London, UK
5 March – 4 April 2010
Admission free
www.p3exhibitions.com
