Sculpture & Plinth
(Unlikely but Not Impossible) 2009
The Holden Gallery
Manchester School of Art,
Manchester UK 2009
'Exploring perception, space, and materiality, this work investigates how familiar objects can be transformed to challenge recognition, hierarchy, and expectation. Mass-produced objects are reconfigured into unexpected forms, disrupting habitual modes of engagement and reframing ordinary materials within new formal and conceptual frameworks.'
I have talked on several occasions about how I utilise “play” as a generative operation within my practice. Here, however, I would like to reflect on the role of vision within that process. Initially I considered describing this in terms of synchronicity: the simultaneous discovery of seemingly unrelated objects that later become materials for a work. Increasingly, though, I think “vision” is the more accurate term. What matters is not coincidence itself, but the ability to look across disparate objects and perceive a latent unity, to see not what they separately were, but what together they might become.
Sculpture & Plinth follows almost directly from Still and Engine, both chronologically and categorically, although the process behind it differs in several important respects. The relationship between these works lies not only in their formal qualities, but in the way they approach the use of found materials. In both Still and Engine, the composite elements, although acquired simultaneously, originated from different products and systems. Each object was encountered as part of a larger whole, meaning that part of the process involved deciding which materials to retain and which to disregard.
(Unlikely but Not Impossible) 2009
The Holden Gallery
Manchester School of Art,
Manchester UK 2009
'Exploring perception, space, and materiality, this work investigates how familiar objects can be transformed to challenge recognition, hierarchy, and expectation. Mass-produced objects are reconfigured into unexpected forms, disrupting habitual modes of engagement and reframing ordinary materials within new formal and conceptual frameworks.'
I have talked on several occasions about how I utilise “play” as a generative operation within my practice. Here, however, I would like to reflect on the role of vision within that process. Initially I considered describing this in terms of synchronicity: the simultaneous discovery of seemingly unrelated objects that later become materials for a work. Increasingly, though, I think “vision” is the more accurate term. What matters is not coincidence itself, but the ability to look across disparate objects and perceive a latent unity, to see not what they separately were, but what together they might become.
Sculpture & Plinth follows almost directly from Still and Engine, both chronologically and categorically, although the process behind it differs in several important respects. The relationship between these works lies not only in their formal qualities, but in the way they approach the use of found materials. In both Still and Engine, the composite elements, although acquired simultaneously, originated from different products and systems. Each object was encountered as part of a larger whole, meaning that part of the process involved deciding which materials to retain and which to disregard.
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In the case of Sculpture & Plinth, however, all of its component parts originate from a single source: a set of file drawers. To me, this suggested that every part present should be utilised. Although this distinction may initially appear slight, it has become increasingly fundamental within my practice over time. Once it is established that all of the elements necessary to compose a work are already present within a single artefact, it not only suggests that every component should be used, but also that nothing external should be added to the process, including any additional means of fixing or support. As certain lists of ingredients state: “nothing added, nothing taken away.”
This condition lends the work a particular sense of wholeness. The piece remains materially closed, composed entirely from the logic and limitations of its originating object. Rather than transforming the file drawers into something wholly separate, the process becomes one of revealing latent possibilities already contained within them. Vision, in this sense, is not simply the act of invention, but of recognition: perceiving a structure, image, or object before it fully emerges, while allowing the material itself to remain fundamental to the work’s resolution. There is, however, another form of wholeness present within the work. |
Although the piece is titled Sculpture & Plinth, both the sculpture and its support are composed from elements of the same originating artefact. The distinction between object and support therefore becomes less certain. If both emerge from the same material system, it raises the question of where a sculpture truly begins and ends, particularly in relation to the structure that elevates or presents it. The plinth, rather than functioning as a neutral support external to the work, becomes implicated within the sculpture itself: not simply the thing beneath the object, but part of the object’s total form.
In this way, Sculpture & Plinth exists as a negotiation between recognition and construction, discovery and decision-making. The work does not attempt to conceal the origins of its materials, but instead allows those origins to remain visible within its final form. What emerges is not simply a reconfiguration of found objects, but a consideration of how relationships between materials, structures, and supports might already exist in latent form, awaiting only the act of being perceived.
In this way, Sculpture & Plinth exists as a negotiation between recognition and construction, discovery and decision-making. The work does not attempt to conceal the origins of its materials, but instead allows those origins to remain visible within its final form. What emerges is not simply a reconfiguration of found objects, but a consideration of how relationships between materials, structures, and supports might already exist in latent form, awaiting only the act of being perceived.