Richard Rigg
dal 17/5/2012 al 26/8/2012
Segnalato da
17/5/2012
Richard Rigg
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Lacuna. The project began with Rigg's observation of fog over a mountain and his meditation on how the mountain could a once be both absent and present. A Clearing, his most ambitious work to date, uncovers our complex potential connections.
Nominated for the prestigious Northern Art Prize in 2011, Richard Rigg is one of the
most exciting artists based in the North East. Playful and often humorous, his works
reproduce and manipulate everyday objects, asking us to view their physicality and
function in a new light.
For his exhibition Lacuna at BALTIC, Rigg has produced his most ambitious work to date
– the major new commission A Clearing. The ambiguous title of the work could refer to
that moment where you finally find yourself out of the trees in an open space of a forest,
an instance of apparent clarity or, conversely, it could signify something being erased. In
the exhibition space visitors will find a mountain cabin. Invited inside, they will discover
its interior to be a mountain landscape alive with plants. The project began with Rigg’s
observation of fog over a mountain and his meditation on how the mountain could at
once be both absent and present. A Clearing also uncovers our complex potential
connections and disconnections with landscape.
Un-tethered from time and place, the cabin is a design hybrid taken from many sources
from various periods. The landscape found within it is unremarkable and has no
discerning features. Its rocks and stones are mainly taken from Torridon, a series of
mountains in the Scottish Highlands, and are largely from the little-known Precambian
period that predates human life. Repositioned within the manmade structure of the hut,
these natural objects reflect how our understanding of the past is framed and
constructed. The contained mountain also provokes our capacity to imagine a space
beyond our known landscape.
Richard Rigg was born in Cumbria in 1980. He holds a BA in Fine Art from Newcastle
University and was nominated for the Northern Art Prize in 2011. Rigg has appeared in
many group exhibitions including Cage Mix: Sculpture & Sound at BALTIC Centre for
Contemporary Art (2010) and Broken Fall (organic) at Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna,
Italy (2011). He lives and works in Newcastle.
Image: Richard Rigg, 54.969211, -1.598278. Courtesy of Workplace Gallery and the artist
For further information and image please contact:
Ann Cooper, Head of Communications T: 0191 440 4915 E: annc@balticmill.com
Nikki Maguire, Communications Assistant T: 0191 440 4912 E: nikkim@balticmill.com
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays - South Shore Road - Gateshead
Opening hours:
Monday - Sunday 10.00 - 18.00
Except Tuesdays 10.30 – 18.00
Admission free