Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University College London : B - Fine Art
Social Sculpture
Following the success of ‘Pavilion’ (Whitstable Biennale, 2010), I was invited by the Whitstable Biennale curatorial team to create ‘Social Sculpture’ to further explore the potential of sculptural spaces for audience interaction. The commission successfully received a grant through National Lottery funding from Arts Council England and is continuing to tour other UK venues over 2014, including Downstairs Gallery at Great Brampton House. The nature of the artwork is that it is edited and changed directly in consultation with each venue, addressing notions of audience participation and exploring the very nature of functionality, use value and social architecture.
This artwork, and the research surrounding it, is about the conceptual space between form and functionality. The work needs to act in real terms as usable architecture while simultaneously functioning aesthetically as sculpture. It only really becomes activated as an artwork when its use value is that of a public space/location, used by others and engaged with by the general public and audience. This duality ensures it will never become a static work, always being part of a negotiation - between function and the purely aesthetic.
Social Sculpture was a pivotal artwork in Whitstable, shifting the emphasis and focus of the Biennale to a central point, changing the dynamic of the event. This was key to my research in exploring agency and social cohesion, ownership for the town and in being a focal point for a previously dispersed audience.
I have been invited to be part of a research network considering the role of artists in regeneration in South England. My research on Social Sculpture will make a key contribution to this work including a new collaborative commission in partnership between Slade School of Fine Art, UCL; University of Kent; New Economics Foundation and the Whitstable Biennale.