West Sussex 2019

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. Song Ta’s humorous installation centres on a political figure that has become synonymous with China itself, both nationally as well as internationally. The work consists of a grey, large-scale bust of Chairman Mao – copied from a well-known sculpture ubiquitously seen throughout China – and absurdly transported to the grounds of the Cass Sculpture Foundation. Song is a member of the so-called ‘post-80s’ generation of Chinese citizens who did not experience the Cultural Revolution first hand. Thus, his personal impression of the Great Helmsman has only ever been hazy at best. This is reflected in the formal presentation of the sculpture itself: like so many monuments throughout the world, Song’s sculpture of Mao is leeched of colour and vitality, and in addition, Song has sprayed the surrounding vegetation a neutral shade of grey to match. In typically ironic fashion, Song has created a picture-perfect monument– inviting visitors to photograph themselves in front of this ‘readymade’ black and white image of an historical figure, and playfully asking us to question our own relationship to cultural memory and national identity in an era of spectacle and simulacra.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. Danny Lane is renowned for creating large–scale works in glass. His works often engage with their surrounding architecture or, as in this case, define their own. Stairway is a composition of glass and steel that exemplifies Lane’s engineering ingenuity. This work is composed solely of 30, 60 and 90 degree angles that work together to manipulate a specific perspective. Lane crafts this perspective to create a receding stairway that symbolises time, potential, progress and linear and non-linear chronologies. Lane’s Stairway makes bold references to both art history, particularly Brancusi’s endless column, and the historical symbol of Jacob’s Ladder. This is the symbolic pathway one should follow in order to secure entry into heaven, commonly referred to as a ‘stairway to heaven.’ Without a landing, Stairway seems to stretch on into infinity and, in combination with its luminous surface, enables it as such a pathway. Lane has etched the glass surfaces to refract light, giving the illusion that this work is lightly covered in water and evoking ideas of impasse; that the ‘stairway’ is not always easily navigable.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. Danny Lane is renowned for creating large–scale works in glass. His works often engage with their surrounding architecture or, as in this case, define their own. Stairway is a composition of glass and steel that exemplifies Lane’s engineering ingenuity. This work is composed solely of 30, 60 and 90 degree angles that work together to manipulate a specific perspective. Lane crafts this perspective to create a receding stairway that symbolises time, potential, progress and linear and non-linear chronologies. Lane’s Stairway makes bold references to both art history, particularly Brancusi’s endless column, and the historical symbol of Jacob’s Ladder. This is the symbolic pathway one should follow in order to secure entry into heaven, commonly referred to as a ‘stairway to heaven.’ Without a landing, Stairway seems to stretch on into infinity and, in combination with its luminous surface, enables it as such a pathway. Lane has etched the glass surfaces to refract light, giving the illusion that this work is lightly covered in water and evoking ideas of impasse; that the ‘stairway’ is not always easily navigable.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. Bu Num Civilisation Wheel appropriates aesthetic representations of an archaeological dig. Whilst at Cass Sculpture Foundation, Tu Wei-Cheng developed five excavation sites, each about five square meters in size and one meter deep. Within these sites, ‘cultural relics’ have been unearthed, whilst others remain buried deep underground. In contrast to the usual discoveries at excavation sites the discovered ‘cultural relics’ at CASS are in fact Tu Wei Cheng’s sculptures. Upon close inspection of this work items such as USB drives, computer hardware, speakers, mobile phones, floppy disks, remote controls and even Internet cable slots and motherboards are discernible. Once viewers discover these disguised forms of contemporary objects, they realise the absurdist humour behind the entire archaeological site. Tu Wei Cheng holds workshops in archaeological discovery at these excavation sites, which he combines with related fake press coverage of these ‘discoveries’.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. Bu Num Civilisation Wheel appropriates aesthetic representations of an archaeological dig. Whilst at Cass Sculpture Foundation, Tu Wei-Cheng developed five excavation sites, each about five square meters in size and one meter deep. Within these sites, ‘cultural relics’ have been unearthed, whilst others remain buried deep underground. In contrast to the usual discoveries at excavation sites the discovered ‘cultural relics’ at CASS are in fact Tu Wei Cheng’s sculptures. Upon close inspection of this work items such as USB drives, computer hardware, speakers, mobile phones, floppy disks, remote controls and even Internet cable slots and motherboards are discernible. Once viewers discover these disguised forms of contemporary objects, they realise the absurdist humour behind the entire archaeological site. Tu Wei Cheng holds workshops in archaeological discovery at these excavation sites, which he combines with related fake press coverage of these ‘discoveries’.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. 195.5 Arc x 14 is a dynamic sculpture composed of two clusters of cor-ten steel beams that lean against each other for support like two old friends. This work is part of Bernar Venet’s arc series named after their mathematical composition. All fourteen beams are curved gracefully to the exact same angle of 195.5 degrees in a majestic act of balance. These fourteen curves create a rhythmic sculpture which appears both stable and precarious. Their deceptively precarious appeal hides a happy accident. During transportation these monumental arcs were provisionally placed and Venet saw an opportunity in their momentary alignment, and thereby decided to create a new work. This example illustrates the sculptor’s intention to create compositions that are neither pre-meditated nor planned during the process of artistic production. Venet embraces the uncontrived geometric arrangements in his work, which he believes invite a certain element of chaos, what he calls the ‘collapse of the world’, whilst simultaneously providing focus on fundamental sculptural properties, such as density, mass, balance, form and the manipulation of positive and negative space. Bernar Venet’s works are predominantly based on theories, which appear to be contradictory, but contextually align themselves in a complementary way. For instance 195.5 Arc x 14 is both dense and precariously angled, determined and non-determined. He sees these polarities as an analogy for how life, matter and nature organises itself according to opposing, yet complementary principles such as order and disorder.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. 195.5 Arc x 14 is a dynamic sculpture composed of two clusters of cor-ten steel beams that lean against each other for support like two old friends. This work is part of Bernar Venet’s arc series named after their mathematical composition. All fourteen beams are curved gracefully to the exact same angle of 195.5 degrees in a majestic act of balance. These fourteen curves create a rhythmic sculpture which appears both stable and precarious. Their deceptively precarious appeal hides a happy accident. During transportation these monumental arcs were provisionally placed and Venet saw an opportunity in their momentary alignment, and thereby decided to create a new work. This example illustrates the sculptor’s intention to create compositions that are neither pre-meditated nor planned during the process of artistic production. Venet embraces the uncontrived geometric arrangements in his work, which he believes invite a certain element of chaos, what he calls the ‘collapse of the world’, whilst simultaneously providing focus on fundamental sculptural properties, such as density, mass, balance, form and the manipulation of positive and negative space. Bernar Venet’s works are predominantly based on theories, which appear to be contradictory, but contextually align themselves in a complementary way. For instance 195.5 Arc x 14 is both dense and precariously angled, determined and non-determined. He sees these polarities as an analogy for how life, matter and nature organises itself according to opposing, yet complementary principles such as order and disorder.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. Thomas Keisewetter’s Broken Butterflies (Version 1) is made up of a series of isolated steel shapes that combine to create a vibrant, abstract form. Kiesewetter begins his process by crafting each individual section of the sculpture out of paper, cardboard and tape, allowing the chance pliability of the material to engender the sculpture’s final profile. Describing the fabrication process as “like rolling a dice”, Broken Butterflies is partially an investigation into the agency of the artist, coincidence and chance. The use of corten steel – a material that weathers naturally, changing colour over time as layers of rust form on its surface – contributes to the sense in which Keisewetter exercises the limitations of his involvement. For Keisewetter, an integral component to the work is the multiplicity of interpretations it offers the viewer. Broken Butterflies shifts and shimmers as different coherent forms rise up from certain angles, only to disappear as you continue to walk around the structure. The title contributes to the sense of disjointed beauty achieved by the mass of steel, which can be grasped fleetingly in a multitude of momentary forms.

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex. In the seventies Lynn Chadwick began to develop his style from angular and abstract constructions into smooth and more obviously figurative forms. He began using geometric shapes as emblems for limbs and heads in order to standardise his figures. Diamond is a perfect example of this evolution into figuration. There is a satisfaction in understanding the progression of Lynn Chadwick’s work from his early mobiles, which can be understood as explorations into space and volume, to the Conjunction works of the sixties, which combined mass in sculptural form, to the more refined and smooth Cubist forms of his works in the eighties, such as Diamond. This work exposes the visual code which Chadwick developed; the diamond or pyramid referring to the female and the rectangular to the male. Although Cubist and geometric, Diamond is not cold or without movement. The masterful lean, which Chadwick accomplished in Diamond, provides a soft edge ensuring that the works ‘attitude’ is not lost. Chadwick believed this attitude was imperative to the success of a sculpture and Diamond certainly achieves this through an endearing interaction of two figures.