Dimensions: display dimensions variable
Copyright: © Roger Hiorns | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Here we have "Untitled," by Roger Hiorns, from the Tate collection. It's...oddly serene, isn't it? Like a ghostly totem pole. Editor: The process is what grabs me. What everyday materials did Hiorns source, and how did he manipulate them to arrive at this hybrid form? Curator: I see a suggestion of functionality, something industrial repurposed into art. Is it a lamp? A filter? Though it's functionless, it’s as if it holds some higher purpose, like a divine antenna. Editor: Precisely! The smooth, almost ceramic quality of the stacked forms clashes with the visible screw threading. It's a calculated disruption, playing with utility and obsolescence. Curator: There's an ethereal quality, too. Suspended like that, it's as if Hiorns wanted to capture something unearthly, a message from somewhere beyond. Editor: Which brings me back to the materials. What hides beneath the surface, enabling this...levitation? Curator: For me, it lingers as a quiet meditation. Editor: It's a reminder that art reshapes materials, reshapes us.
Comments
Join the conversation
Join millions of artists and users on Artera today and experience the ultimate creative platform.
tate 25 days ago
⋮
Untitled is one of a series of six untitled, hollow ceramic vessels collectively known as Beachy Head (Tate T12457–T12462). These works are designed to be suspended from the ceiling with stainless steel wire and filled with soap detergent. The ceramic vessel that constitutes the body of Untitled has a glassy off-white surface coating and is made of three component forms: the top form is a long cylinder that tapers in towards its centre; the middle form mimics the that of the top cylinder, but is wider in diameter and more squat in length, while the lower form is a straight cylinder with a banded relief similar to that of a bolt thread. As such, the overall shape of the sculpture loosely resembles a spark plug. From the centre of its base runs a transparent silicon hose that is connected to an air compressor that feeds oxygen into the vessel. When the air compressor is switched on, the oxygen mixes with the soap detergent to produce frothy white foam that exudes out of the vessel’s spout. This column of foam, which maintains the cylindrical form of the inside of the vessel, grows steadily upwards until it can no longer support itself. The foam bends and flops flaccidly around the vessel before oozing on to the floor below, leaving a sticky entropic residue. The device continues to produce the foamy precipitate until the emission is entirely dispersed.
CollectMore like this
