15/1/2003
Conrad Shawcross
Entwistle, London
The Nervous Systems. For his first solo exhibition in London, Shawcross has constructed a two-part mechanised wooden sculpture that fills the ground floor gallery of Entwistle. These two fully-functioning, hand-made constructions rotate in symmetric opposition to create a double helix rope that gathers on the floor of the gallery for the duration of the show.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEMS
Conrad Shawcross is a 25 year-old British sculptor whose intricate
sculptures and machines marry current and historical concerns of science
and philosophy with those of contemporary art.
For his first solo exhibition in London, Shawcross has constructed a
two-part mechanised wooden sculpture that fills the ground floor gallery
of Entwistle. These two fully-functioning, hand-made constructions rotate
in symmetric opposition to create a double helix rope that gathers on the
floor of the gallery for the duration of the show. Shawcross's
preoccupation with time and the scientific, philosophical and cosmological
issues encountered when representing it are the basis for this
construction and the rope it manufactures.
In the lower gallery Shawcross presents Pre-Retroscope, two sculptures
designed to both film and project a 360 degree video work. Shawcross has
filmed a complete rotation: a doomed attempt to capture a moment in its
entirety. The first is a boat-like structure with a circular track
supporting a video projector which runs its circumference. Like a beam
from a lighthouse, it projects the film at the same rate of rotation that
it was filmed. The second is the land-based model of its maritime
counterpart. These two works form an installation that transforms the
lower gallery into a hybrid space between laboratory and cinema.
Shawcross's functioning sculptural machines blur the boundaries between
artist and inventor, sculpture and folly, and lead us to question our
conception of time and place.
Conrad Shawcross was born in 1977 and currently lives and works in London.
Selected Group Exhibitions: Fame and Promise, 14 Wharf Road, London, 2002;
It was bigger than all of us, Prenelle Gallery, Canary Wharf, 2002. Engine
II (Communicating at an Unknown Rate), The Old Armory, Harrow Road,
London, 2001; New Contemporaries 2001, Camden Arts Centre, London;
Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, 2001; Engine I, Dollard
Street Studios, Vauxhall, London, 2000.
exhibition supported by Marlow
In the image: 'Pre-retroscope', 2002
PREVIEW: THURSDAY 16 JANUARY 6 - 8 PM
Tuesday to Saturday 10.00-17.30
Entwistle
6 Cork St, London W1S 3EE
T +44 (0)20 7734 6440