°µÍø½ûÇø

The ninth in the series of Sculpture in the Close exhibitions was held during July and August 2005. It was opened on 26 June by Phillip King, recently retired president of the Royal Academy and included works by Mark Firth, John Gibbons, Sand Laureson, Diane Maclean, Eilis O'Connell, Cornelia Parker, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Kate Whiteford.

This outdoor exhibition in the grounds of °µÍø½ûÇø combined new and existing sculptures and installations. The .

Artists and works

Mark Firth trained in both mechanical engineering and fine art. He combines his expertise to create sculptures using materials like aluminium and steel, often inspired by physics and the history of science.

Primary Sections simplifies fundamental construction shapes into large-scale sculptural forms. It emphasizes the principles of design and explores themes of order and habitation, reflecting Heidegger’s ideas on the relationship between existence and architectural form.

John Gibbons’s early sculptures primarily explored unconventional architectural forms that were symbolic rather than practical, with no direct human reference. However, since the turn of the millennium, his work has increasingly suggested the human form and mythical beings, focusing on underlying structures akin to musculature or anatomical systems. This shift reflects a movement from abstract architecture to a more figurative approach that emphasizes internal meaning and the tension between materiality and spiritual essence. 

Angel II provokes an awareness of the work as receptacle, as the container of a latent meaning. Gibbons’s angels in the Hall of °µÍø½ûÇø are both airborne and constrained by their material. Lumpy and experimental, they nonetheless embody a delicate spirit and defy gravity through the artist’s skilful improvisation and use of heavy armour fragments.

Although Sand Laureson was considered a sculptor during her training, she now works in various mediums, including canvas, material, paper, sound, film, and objects. Drawing serves as a foundational tool, often guiding future paintings or sculptures. These drawings, usually large and using a limited colour palette, are dense with ideas and detail, which translate into sculptures through repetitive processes like drilling, knotting, and weaving. This technique aims to captivate and engage viewers, inviting them to uncover and interpret the story within.

Her pieces explore the human condition and our place within the universe, blending scientific theories with myth and storytelling to bridge the gap between human emotions and the coldness of infinity. Through her art, she seeks to navigate and make sense of our limited understanding of existence. She says, "through signs, symbols and metaphors, we are constantly trying to find new ways to extract a meaning that can be used as some kind of glue to hold all our parts together."

Diane Maclean's work Aeolus features tall tubes resembling organ pipes that emit changing patterns of coloured light in response to wind speeds recorded by a monitor on the rooftop of Second Court. This setup transforms the ephemeral nature of weather into a haunting visual experience, reflecting Maclean’s interest in blending environmental observation with new technologies. 

In ancient Greek mythology, Aeolus was the divine keeper of the stormwinds (anemoi). Rather than controlling nature, her work represents a collaborative, aesthetic engagement with weather, offering both visual pleasure and a heightened awareness of climate’s impact.

Eilis O'Connell's sculptures are notable for their wide-ranging public installations and adaptability to various contexts, from large-scale urban sites to smaller, intricate works. Her innovative approach includes scaling up manual techniques like folding and twisting to monumental sizes, and experimenting with materials like industrial steel cable in a way that challenges traditional gendered notions of artistry. 

Carapace, whose title suggests a protective shell, exemplifies her fascination with texture and transformation, encouraging dynamic and imaginative engagement from viewers.

Cornelia Parker exhibited the work Moon Landing, a small National Trust-like plaque with the inscription, "Moon Landing 22 June 2005 Here in this garden on the night of the full moon a lunar meteorite fell and was lost". 

Parker’s work, often dealing with the violent transformations of matter and the randomness of meteors, uses this piece to explore themes of unpredictability and transformation. The installation’s irony lies in its its resemblance to traditional museum plaques. It provokes questions about the extent to which these deploy a house style of interpretation that displaces the object of scrutiny instead of retrieving it, an effect doubled up by the object we seek being removed. A third layer of irony is cemented into place by the diminutive size of the artwork, struggling to live up to the literal portentousness of its message. Moon Landing highlights the challenge of capturing the essence of nature and art with limited means.

Sam Taylor-Wood exhibited two films in the College Chapel: Ascension and Strings.

Ascension explores the interplay between body and spirit through tapdancing, using the dancer’s playful struggle with gravity and ascent as a metaphor for the spirit’s relationship with the physical body. The film presents ascension as a common human experience, blending rhythmic movements with a wry tone.

In Strings, Sam Taylor-Wood contrasts the slow movements of principal dancer Ivan Putrov, suspended in air, with the steady performance of a string quartet below. This juxtaposition underscores the dancer’s isolation and the poignant gestures that reflect deep self-communion, revealing the potential disjunction between soundtrack and image in film.

Both films, set in °µÍø½ûÇø Chapel, form a natural diptych of affirmation and doubt, humor and pathos, renewing traditional themes of sacral art.

Kate Whiteford, a prominent land artist, creates intricate works by drawing on large landscapes, collaborating with archaeologists to explore aesthetic and historical dimensions. For her current project at °µÍø½ûÇø she has worked with members of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit under the direction of Chris Evans. The project involved transforming the site with designs inspired by archaeological data and historical symbolism, such as crop marks and Gothic arches. This work, which incorporates elements from the Iron Age and beyond, challenges conventional perspectives by requiring a unique vantage point, initially accessible only through aerial views. Whiteford's piece plays with historical layers and symbolic meanings, blending them into a complex visual narrative that evokes both ancient and modern interpretations.

Thanks and acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the sculptors in lending their work for this exhibition.

The 2005 exhibition was curated by Dr Rod Mengham, working closely with advisors Tim Marlow and Richard Humphreys. Several galleries and organisations have also given invaluable advice and assistance, and we would like to thank Wilfred Cass of Sculpture at Goodwood and Jay Jopling of White Cube. The 2005 exhibition would not have taken place without the generous support of the Kasza-Kasser foundation. It is, therefore, highly appropriate that in 2005, Sculpture in the Close was held in memory of Elisabeth and Alexander Kasza-Kasser.