Transformations 2: ‘A Clump of Plinths’ by Sarah Staton
Photographs now available of cutting edge artwork
Transformations 2:
‘A Clump of Plinths’ An exhibition of plinths and towers in the Promenade Gallery. By Sarah Staton
Sat 2 May – Sun 6 September 2009
Log onto The Lowry’s digital image library,
www.thelowryimages.com
To download images of this new commission.
One of the country’s freshest and most original artists comes to Salford next month, when Sarah Staton’s latest exhibition ‘A Clump of Plinths’ opens at The Lowry.
Staton has a unique vision that takes her across disciplines from fashion and furniture to architecture and sculpture. Here she uses the zigzagging spaces of The Lowry’s Promenade Gallery to provide the viewer with a series of distinct spaces in which groupings of work are placed - taking the visitor on an extraordinary and unpredictable conceptual journey around the Pacific Rim.
The exhibition starts with ‘Japan’, a series of concrete blocks, adorned with pattern, and continues through groupings of intensely-coloured sculptures, framed by padded paintings made from found vintage fabrics, past tall ‘cityscape’ towers rising up from the floor and casting metal shadows, and culminating with a micro-architecture vision of Hollywood.
Staton explained: “These towers and plinths in the Promenade Gallery sit alongside the gallery’s 30m long window, framing a view around the Quays. Here 60 years of architectural imperatives - new build luxury flats, the BBC buildings in progress, post war housing towers and Salford's Shopping city - stretch away to the horizon. This architectural vista becomes an element of the exhibition itself.”
A dialogue of textures runs throughout the exhibition - rough sits next to smooth, industrial finish alongside hand finished, the shiny and reflective poised against chalky and light absorbing surfaces. Similarly, a formal play between the square and the circle is a thread that connects all these works.
Staton, who studied at St Martin’s School of Art, has developed a compelling ability to re-imagine everyday items. It is the sort of flair that has seen her exhibit in Berlin, New York and Vienna. In 2005 she won a research fellowship with the Henry Moore Institute and in 2008 an Arts Foundation Award for her sculpture.
The Transformations commission aims to create site-specific work for The Lowry’s Promenade Gallery and it presents a rare opportunity for artists to experiment and test new approaches to their practice. The commissions have been funded over three years by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The prestigious selection panel, included Turner Prize-shortlisted artists Jane & Louise Wilson and Stephen Snoddy, the Director of the New Art Gallery in Walsall, selected Staton from 130 artists.
Posted on Wednesday, 15 April 2009 under Press Galleries Press