Output details

(Z)ART - two of Gillam’s sculptures were selected by the curator Jan Hoet to be included in (Z)ART. This group exhibition brought together 14 internationally known contemporary and historical artists with extensive reputations.

Gillam’s research considered the paradox of sculptural immateriality through interrogating accepted conventions of sculpture categorized by ideas of monumentality and gravitas. This research sought to ask in what form can sculpture exist when attempting immateriality and how an improvisatory and responsive methodology can explore sculptural presence.

Two of Gillam’s sculptures were selected by the curator Jan Hoet to be included in the group exhibition (Z)ART. The exhibition's curatorial concept explored the role of the overlooked as a counterpoint to the loud and bombastic that Hoet argues dominates much contemporary art practice and exhibitions.

The artworks were selected by Hoet from a series Gillam made during 2009 that rigourously explored the potential for sculpture to exist in a state of provisionality and impermanence. This research questioned and re-evaluated notions of sculptural presence and production by employing improvisatory and responsive on-site strategies to the fabrication of sculptures.

The research referenced “The Philosophy of Improvisation” (2011) by Gary Peters; Arte Povera, Surrealist and Dada approaches to bricolage and appropriation of everyday materials. Recent relevant contextual exhibitions include “Unmonumental” (2007) New Museum, New York, “Undone” (2010-11) at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds and “Making is Thinking” (2011) at Witte de With, Rotterdam.

Jan Hoet has a significant international reputation as a curator of exhibitions such as Documenta IX in 1992 and Chambres d'Amis in Ghent in 1982. (Z)ART brought together 14 internationally known contemporary and historical artists with extensive reputations.

(Z) ART was accompanied by a catalogue with three essays by; Jan Hoet, Michael Kroger and Antje Hohren. A round table discussion took place on 29th November 2010 with Jan Hoet, Tilman Osterwold and a range of gallerist’s from Stuttgart, attended by over 100 invited individuals. Over 1,800 visited the exhibition and the show was covered widely in the European press and a website accompanied the exhibition: http://www.z-art.info/index.php