Roger Hiorns
dal 6/4/2006 al 27/5/2006
Segnalato da
6/4/2006
Roger Hiorns
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
He investigates the transformation of objects that might be considered part of the everyday, into something entirely more unconventional and intriguing. His sculptures consistently sets up familiar opposites and oscillates between the straightforward and the perverse.
Milton Keynes Gallery presents the first major solo exhibition in the UK by British artist Roger Hiorns. The exhibition will comprise a selection of work from a five-year period, as well as a new commission for the exhibition.
Hiorns belongs to a tradition of British sculptors who convey a compelling understanding of material and form. He investigates the transformation of objects that might be considered part of the everyday, into something entirely more unconventional and intriguing. His work consistently sets up familiar opposites; masculine contrasted with feminine, brutal with delicate, industrial with organic, and oscillates between the straightforward and the perverse. We are confronted with an object that appears exotic, where the item’s original utility has been masked. The resulting works, which are often playful in spirit, are underpinned by a rigorous conceptual framework, and draw on past precedents from a myriad of artistic movements ranging from Arte Povera to Kinetic Art, and Marcel Duchamp’s readymades to Joseph Beuys’ uncompromising, transformative ‘industrial’ sculpture.
The exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery will feature three main bodies of work. The first is the largest assembled selection of Hiorns’ copper sulphate-dipped car engines, where BMW 8-series engines amongst others, become decadent, complex forms with each part cocooned within a crust of blue crystals. The engine of The Architect’s Mother (2003) is attached to similarly dipped cardboard models of cathedrals, suggestive of devotional objects or religious relics. In Nunhead (2004) two engines are placed opposite one another, in a manner that suggests the profiles of heads facing each other.
The second element of the exhibition comprises Hiorns’ ‘ceramics’: vessels suspended from the ceiling, containing internal elements. The continual feeding of air into a soap solution inside the containers results in the creation of a white foam, which grows in delicate columns of various heights, tentatively reaching upward until the point of ultimate exhaustion and collapse. The process is one of constant reinvention, and allows infinite configurations.
New work commissioned by Milton Keynes Gallery forms the final part of the exhibition and sees Hiorns reinvestigating previous themes. A group of steel sculptures function as a focus for substances Hiorns regularly utilises, such as disinfectant, saliva, perfume and detergent. In re-examining notions of the obsessive, repetitive and compulsive, Hiorns almost subjects his creations to a form of mild abuse. Accompanying this work will be Hiorns’ film, Benign (2005), which reflects the artist’s interest in the possibilities within transgression and ritual. An excerpt from a play, written by the artist and delivered by an actor in monologue, describes a group’s act against an individual, exploring ideas of ceremony, decay, compulsion and acceptance.
Roger Hiorns (b. Birmingham, 1975) has exhibited widely in the UK and elsewhere, with solo projects at Tate Britain (as part of the ART NOW series), London, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and the ‘Frieze Projects Commission’ Frieze Art Fair (2005). He is currently part of the British Art Show 6 which is touring the UK. He lives and works in London.
A full colour catalogue, with texts by JJ Charlesworth, Tom Morton and American writer Dennis Cooper, will accompany this Milton Keynes Gallery exhibition.
Image: Roger Hiorns, 'The Architect's Mother', 2003. Image courtesy Corvi Mora, London
For further information, press images, or interview requests, please contact Giselle Richardson, Press & Marketing Co-ordinator Tel: 01908 558302
Exhibition supported by The Elephant Trust and The Henry Moore Foundation
Preview: 7 Apr | 17.30 - 20.00 | All press and media welcome
Milton Keynes Gallery
900 Midsummer Boulevard Central Milton Keynes MK9 3QA
Open: Tues - Sat 10.00-17.00 Sundays 11.00 - 17.00 Closed Mondays (and for exhibition changeovers) Late Night Thursdays until 20.00
Admission Free