Conrad Shawcross

Went to see some art again this weekend. First up was a show by Conrad Shawcross at the Victoria Miro Gallery. I came across his work during the last Frieze a couple of weeks ago. In the midst of a somewhat bloated undertaking which already gets more attention that it's good for the art exhibited there, I came across a cage-like structure among the crowded stalls. The type you would usually expect wild and strange animals being locked up in. Nevertheless, the setup was in a way befitting for Shawcross' work since some of his mechanical sculptures crafted from wood, rope, wires and metal are actually moving whereas others give the appearance that they should move but they dont. So, in a way, this wild and exotic animal of a contemporary artwork was locked up inside there, on display for the common folk.



Above you can see a larger version of the installation which was also on display at Frieze. The first thing that came to my mind was a reference to a large carousel, the type you might find at theme parks. Having been a kid that was rather easy to scare, I never had much for the scary rides but enjoyed the carousels that would take you on a sort of sightseeing trip around the area. The second impression was that you could actually immediately understand the mechanics at work there from the different spin ratios of the moving parts, being transmitted by gears and shafts from the intial engine.
That way, Shawcross accomplishes an experience which elevates the viewers impression on an abstract level without emphasizing the details of his concept for that piece too much.

"Binary Star, 2006, is the latest in Shawcross's series of kinetic light works and his most physically ambitious to date. Constructed specifically for the vaulted upstairs gallery, Binary Star takes the relatively recent discovery of stars that have found themselves locked in orbits around each other as its inspiration. As a model the binary star throws up an opposing reality to our own mono-solar system. The work, with its fast-moving geometry, is designed to engage the viewer through a complex and intricate dynamic revealing the arcing symmetries of this unfamiliar reality of space." (from the press release)





Another piece I really liked is pictured above. It first looked like some sort of knitting machine or mechanical loom to me. Having a closer look I discovered some sort of colour code on the ropes which, in combination with the display frame in the middle of the piece, made me think of some sort of notation processing system. I was only later to find out that I haven't been that wrong at all and that it was in fact a reference to Babbage's difference engine.

"Paradigm (Ode to the Difference Engine) 2006, is a giant double rope machine unraveling its rope as fast as it can ravel it . Comprising two identical machines, each made of hundreds of cogs, spools and pulleys, the twin structures turn in mirrored opposition to each other, countering all the other does. Built rationally and with intricate empirical precision the work was designed with the knowledge that it could never function - Shawcross's process from the outset was impossible. The artist has spoken of the work being reminiscent of Charles Babbage's unrealized Difference Engine conceived in 1822 and widely regarded as the first computer, also imbued with the same tragic elements of the unobtainable. "




Another fine piece which has no moving parts this time, not even fake ones, and is entirely made out of wood. After being exposed to the previous works of the artist, I begin to understand the overall conceptual nature of his pieces. It's not only the perfection of "hard science" which is expressed in his works, it is also the 'failure' of machines as so happened with "Ode to the Difference Engine". What is often overlooked is that evolution is not a linear process although popular science expresses it that way. Evolution by itself is nothing but an attempt to historically map the tragedies and failures of its potential and to reconstruct this way why and how certain life forms came into being. In a way, evolution is a huge tragedy of the attempts of realizing potential.
I also think that repetition plays a certain role in his works. It is due to redundancies that large parts of the universe exist and even abstract "man made" things like langage. Against the backdrop of that observation the tetrahedrons of the last piece pictured explore the space that is reserved for some form of creative practice due to their redundancy, although they don't create a uniform shape or surface. The potential of their combination leads to a heterogenous arrangement which can be said to be unique and does not necessarily have to be reproduced in exactly the same way in order to create the same experience with the viewer. In that important aspect, the piece differs from the 'hard sciences' and manages to distinguish itself as art and not science.

"Space Grid (Mirrored tetrahedron system), 2006 pursues the binary theme of the exhibition. With the help of a cosmological mathematician Shawcross has developed a system of tetrahedrons that tessellate universally in space. The system comprises of two types of tetrahedron that are identical but are in fact mirror images of each other. Shawcross arranges these tetrahedrons in a multiplicity of combinations and directions to form a 6-D grid of dense geometry that has infinite possibilities."



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