Monday, June 15, 2009

Rhymes with the plural of (window) SILL


Very soon, perhaps even on Wednesday, I'll be announcing an exciting project (if I do say so myself), one that I'm developing in collaboration with my friend, the artist Nils Folke Anderson. Stay tuned!

But today, allow me to briefly introduce you to Nils's work.

Take the piece shown above. What I like is that I have a visceral relationship to it - it's not a model of an idea or an illustration that I observe. That's not to say that I couldn't consider this piece - a set of interlocking and moveable Styrofoam squares – a mathematical conundrum. And as an afterthought this is indeed interesting.

But what strikes me first, along with its balanced good looks, is its scale, which is bigger than me, but smaller than monument. Next to it, I don't feel dwarfed or nullified, but rather distinctly human, and humbled at that. Also as such, I want to touch it, move it. If I were to do so (but I prefer to watch someone else do that, or just imagine), I would end up becoming aware of the piece's possibilities, and also how it is that I move differently in comparison. So I come to have an appreciation of the thing through my experience of it.

The piece is arranged in a formation to suit a specific site; and the little pellets shed through the installation process are also left in the space. This immediately counteracts any pretensions of permanence and importance, making it all the more so, if you ask me.

Consider this post a starting point.

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