A trip to the Tate Modern: Searching for the perfect object.
Posted: September 16, 2014 Filed under: Context, Ideas, Subject | Tags: assemblage, bronza, cardiff school of art and design, Cy Twomby, Gilberto Zorio, glass, gold leaf, mixed media., saloua raouda choucair, sculpture, student, tate modern, terrecotta, Terrence Koh, wood Leave a comment
Naturally, after a trip to Tate Britain I decided to see what the Tate Modern has to offer as they are currently changing a number of their displays.
Cy Twomby’s bronze cast assemblage sculptures have turned ephemeral collected objects into permanent assemblages. This is similar to the idea of Daniel Spoerri in the sense of using what is found, but Twomby goes that step further to bring assemblage back to the concepts of fine art sculpture. These pieces are interesting to look at and to discover the different artefacts that have been chosen to be immortalised in bronze.
Terrence Koh’s piece ‘Untitled (A New World Order Lies in this Golden Age)’ consists of eight gilded glass boxes, five of which have golden sculptures which relate to the idea of bodily excretions. I find these intriguing because at first they appear to be quite perfect, but on closer inspection there are marks left behind by the maker, the gilding isn’t perfect and the artefacts within the boxes have the ability to move and crack the glass. This piece will be ever changing and evolving as it is moved and more pieces are able to change.
I found this piece, Terracotta Circle, by Gilberto Zorio of interest as it relates to proportions of the human body without appearing to have any relation to human form. The terracotta circle encompasses the arm span of the artist whilst the glass platform with lead sits at the artists head height. The piece works well as a whole, and is autobiographical without being overly personal, like works by Tracey Emin, which is refreshing. A piece that speaks for the artist, yet can only be realised as what it is in the right conditions is appealing as it means that only its full context can be realised at certain times.
This is Poem Wall, an interlocking collection of wooden blocks, created by Saloua Raouda Choucair to express the beauty of Arabic poetry. The interest for me is purely the structure of the piece. Using singular parts to create an artefact is also appealing, although it is also important these pieces work on their own or in smaller groups.
