Material Matters
Schedule
Fri May 03 2024 at 11:00 am to 07:00 pm
Location
210 High Street, SA1 1PE Swansea, United Kingdom | Swansea, WA
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Material MattersSokari Douglas Camp | Lee Grandjean | Marie-Therese Ross | Andrew Sabin
Preview: Friday 29th March 7pm.
Exhibition continues until Saturday 11th May.
Opening hours: Wednesday – Sat 11am – 7pm
Material Matters Curated by artist Sarah Tombs brings together the work of four contemporary British sculptors.
The exhibition explores the relationship of process and materiality, how through experimentation and manipulation the sculptor is able to generate sculptural objects whose content and motivations are accessible to an audience.
Engagement with materials and processes of ‘making’ is a particularly relevant debate with increasing availability of digital technology, Computer Aided Manufacture and with the emergence of AI threatening to make human artistic endeavour redundant
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Material Matters investigates ways in which these sculptors combine non-traditional and traditional materials and techniques and how they deal with elements of construction, surface, and colour. The exhibiting sculptors have established practices over several decades and this exhibition draws upon connections between their approaches. Their coming together represents a unique opportunity to examine this core sculptural premise.
Sabin uses a vast range of materials, including ephemeral edible substances usually found in the kitchen, such as margarine, to create specific sculptural forms which are transformed into highly coloured and shiny plastic permanent objects. He uses industrial processes of welding and construction in his freestanding object-based sculptures which are constructed from cement, steel, polyurethane and expanding foam. “I believe it is a sculptor’s job to test materials. It doesn’t come without obstacles, but I like a good sculptural struggle.”
Grandjean’s work deals with form and pictorial elements. At the heart of his practice is wood carving, which is deconstructed and then reworked, creating amalgamations of forms made from concrete, mesh, and plastics. Colour is applied to the surface which consolidates the sculptures.
‘For me, materials have to be pushed beyond their literal characteristics, beauty is not the goal, but an authentic and believable sculptural energy and presence in which form, and content are one’.
His new body of work Heroes is a response to Elysium’s former life as a nightclub. Grandjean has created a series ‘revellers’ that interact with the architecture of the gallery.
‘When responding to the challenge of bringing a body of work to the Elysium Gallery, I was fascinated by the name and the way it opened-up in me a re-enchantment with the Greek myths that my mother read to me when I was young. Those myths of course that underpin so much of Western European art. I decided to take on certain characters from Greek myths and to use them unambiguously as subject matter for a series of sculptures. Myths are always metaphors of course, illuminating human vulnerabilities that underly any heroic’.
‘For me, materials have to be pushed beyond their literal characteristics, beauty is not the goal, but an authentic and believable sculptural energy and presence in which form, and content are one’.
Marie-Therese Ross’s sculptures are made from a combination of laminated wood parts. Using found objects which are integrated and sublimated into the works with carved and painted wood- colour adds another layer of expression and meaning to the whole. The mass of wood echoes the drawn and cut-out lines found in her drawings and collages, lending itself well to her process of working.
For this exhibition Ross has focused on Dylan Thomas’ poetry and life. Particularly, ‘A Winter’s Tale’ and ‘Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed’ have inspired the artist, discovering shared experiences with the poet, and exploring these in her new works. The installation will explore mortality and incorporate accompanying music.
Douglas Camp transforms oil drums and fabricates steel into figurative sculpture that is often rooted in African culture where the artist was born. Her work is highly coloured, and uses pattern, textile and decorative elements. Rather than designing and laser cutting Camp ‘draws’ patterns by hand using a blowtorch cutting into the steel sheet.
She describes her work as ‘the joy of making’, however her work is also political and rooted in African culture, her use of oil drums to create beauty is a conscious and poignant statement of the Niger Delta’s oil production and is one of the most polluted places in the world.
As part of Material Matters, elysium will also be hosting the work of three Swansea College of Art Fine Art students (interchanging throughout the show) to exhibit alongside the other four artists in its new Testbed Space. This is a part of the gallery set aside for emerging artists to experiment with new work and become part of the elysium gallery exhibitions programme.
The artists are Branwen Jones, Luke Cotter and Amelie Warner.
This exhibition is supported by The Arts Council of Wales and the Henry Moore Foundation.
Online artist talks:
Tues 9th April 7pm - Branwen Jones, Luke Cotter and Amelie Warner
Tues 16th April 7pm - Andrew Sabin
Tues 23rd April 7pm - Lee Grandjean
Tues 30th April 7pm - Sokari Douglas Camp
TBC - Marie-Therese Ross
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Where is it happening?
210 High Street, SA1 1PE Swansea, United Kingdom, 210 High Street, Swansea, SA1 1, United Kingdom,Swansea, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
