Internationally acclaimed British artist, Conrad Shawcross will become Artist-in-Residence at the Science Museum from 23 September 2009 as part of its ongoing centenary programme.
As artist-in-residence Conrad Shawcross will be given access to the Science Museum’s peerless collections and expert curators, extending his own personal investigations into meaning and the construction of certainty and beliefs in science. The residency will culminate in an exhibition of new works installed within the Museum’s collections. Shawcross will also develop a curatorial project, for which he will act as artist-curator, selecting objects from the collection to be shown alongside his own and other contemporary artists work for Science Museum Arts Projects’ future programme.
Imbued with an appearance of scientific rationality, Shawcross' work explores subjects that lie on the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics and metaphysics. Attracted by failed quests for knowledge in the past, he often appropriates redundant theories and methodologies to create ambitious structural and mechanical montages, using a wide variety of materials and media. Through his sculptures Shawcross pays homage to the follies, errors and misplaced beliefs of science as well as interrogating its advances and achievements.
Conrad Shawcross said:
‘Throughout my life I have always returned to the Science Museum. It has always been a great source of inspiration to me and indeed whenever I feel the reservoirs are low or just need to get away from the wood to see the trees again, the Science Museum is a place I invariably return and it always seems to re-align me. I am looking forward immensely to being the Centenary artist-in-residence this year; this is pretty much seventh heaven for me’
Hannah Redler, Head of Science Museum Art Projects said:
‘Shawcross’ works attract the eye with their visceral, powerful presence, orchestrated movements and curious behaviours. They also thrill the mind as he draws us into his own world of speculative investigation which throws out thought-provoking aesthetic challenges to perceived scientific certainties. In today's society, science attracts a high level of media and public interest. But there is little understanding that its findings are often provisional. Commonly, science is seen as the voice of absolute truth. The Science Museum likes to present a broader picture. The opportunity to include the intelligence, wit and enquiry that Shawcross’ artistic voice will bring, amongst the traditional voices of scientific authority, is one that we are looking forward to with great relish’
Conrad Shawcross’ residency at the Science Museum is supported by The Leverhulme Trust.
In parallel with his residency this autumn Shawcross will present his most ambitious work to date, Chord (8 October - 8 November 2009). This new site-specific commission is part of a unique temporary opening of the Kingsway Tram Subway in Holborn, London. Chord, is an epic installation of two machines, each five metres in diameter that will slowly spin a rope made from over 80 individual coloured spools over a length of 100 metres. London Borough of Camden has granted special access to the Kingsway Tram Subway, a fascinating and unique survivor of London’s tramway heritage. (Further information: www.measure.org.uk).
For further information please contact Andrew Marcus, Science Museum Press Office, on 020 7942 4357 / andrew.marcus@sciencemuseum.org.uk.
Notes to Editors
1. Science Museum
From June 2009 the Science Museum is celebrating its hundredth birthday and a century of science with a year-long centenary programme to take the renowned institution into the future. For 100 years the Science Museum has been world-renowned for its historic collection, remarkable galleries and inspirational exhibitions. With around 15,000 objects on public display, the Science Museum’s collections form an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical change from the past few centuries. Aiming to be the best place in the world for people to enjoy science, the Science Museum makes sense of the science that shapes our lives, sparking curiosity, releasing creativity and changing the future by engaging people of all generations and backgrounds in science engineering, medicine, technology, design and enterprise. In 2008/09 the Science Museum was proud to have been awarded the Gold Award for Visitor Attraction of the Year by Visit London and a Silver Award for Large Visitor Attraction of the Year by Enjoy England.
2. Conrad Shawcross
Conrad Shawcross' sculptures explore subjects that lie on the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics and metaphysics. Different technologies - nautical and audio-visual - and different natural forces inspire his forms, but his mysterious machines and structures remain enigmatic, filled with paradox and wonder.
Recent works by the artist include: ‘Paradigm (Ode to the Difference Engine)’, 2006, which makes references to the life and work of Charles Babbage. The work consists of two large-scale oak structures with bespoke mechanical parts designed to unravel a constant metre of rope as quickly as it can be raveled. Although appearing to look like functioning machine ‘Paradigm’ ultimately ‘delivers nothing’ but, like it's calculating forefather, the opportunity to contemplate on the poetic possibilities of laudable failure; ‘Space Trumpet’, 2007, a computer-operated oak sculpture installed in the Unilever building in London, is inspired by the history of early acoustic mapping, while ‘Slow Arc Inside a Cube’, 2008, where Shawcross has worked with “the idea that visible reality is only a small crumb of what's really out there” was influenced by a quotation the artist discovered amongst the Museum's displays by the late chemist Dorothy Hodgkin, where she described working out the complex structure of pig insulin as ‘like trying to deduce the structure of a tree from only seeing its shadow’.
More recently, with another group of works, Conrad Shawcross has begun to experiment with ideal geometries and topologies; these constructions are conceived as systems, sometimes modular, sometimes mechanical, which could be theoretically extended infinitely into space. In these and other sculptures, Shawcross pays tribute to some of the great pioneers and analysts, and considers a specific moment or figure from the past. Paradigm (Ode to the Difference Engine) (2006) references the life of Charles Babbage, Space Trumpet (2007) is inspired by the history of early acoustic mapping, while Slow Arc Inside a Cube (2008) takes its inspiration from the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin's discovery of the structure of pig insulin.
Born in 1977, Shawcross lives and works in London. He has had solo exhibitions at Location One, New York (2009), Jenaer Kunstverein, Germany (2008), The New Art Gallery, Walsall and The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2005), and the National Maritime Museum (2004). His work has also been exhibited internationally at institutions including Musée d'art Contemporain, Lyon (2008), Art Basel | 39 (2008), La Chapelle de L'Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (2008), The Saatchi Gallery (2004) and Manifesta 5, San Sebastian, Spain (2004). Shawcross's first public commission ‘Space Trumpet’ won the Art & Work 2008 Award for a Work of Art Commissioned for a Specific Site in a Working Environment.
3. The Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the Will of the first Lord Leverhulme. It is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing funds of some £50 million every year. For further information about the schemes that The Leverhulme Trust fund visit their website at www.leverhulme.ac.uk.
