Martin Boyce
Now I've got real worry (Mask and L-bar) from 1998-9 is an example of an early work in this vein in which Boyce has deconstructed two modernist objects by the iconic American designers, Charles and Ray Eames. In works such as this, Boyce compares the culture in which the objects were originally produced, in this case the optimism surrounding the post-war boom in manufacturing, to their role today as design icons for the bourgeoisie. As Boyce explained: "It seemed to me that as these objects travelled through time their original ethos had been stripped away and replaced by an ideology based on pecuniary notions of taste and specialist knowledge".
Boyce's interest in modernist design was cemented when he unearthed a photograph of the concrete trees created by Joël and Jan Martel for the 1925 Parisian exhibition of decorative arts. This marks the defining point for the artist's more recent work. According to Boyce these trees "represent a perfect collapse of architecture and nature"; the amalgamation of the opposing elements of the urban and natural world. From the Martels' distinctly cubist inspired interpretation of nature, Boyce extracted a grid based vocabulary of geometric shapes that he has since used as a basis for all aspects of his practice. Once familiar with this visual code it becomes identifiable ubiquitously, in everything from his photographic and print-based work, to his sculptures and installations.
Boyce's interest in modernist design was cemented when he unearthed a photograph of the concrete trees created by Joël and Jan Martel for the 1925 Parisian exhibition of decorative arts. This marks the defining point for the artist's more recent work. According to Boyce these trees "represent a perfect collapse of architecture and nature"; the amalgamation of the opposing elements of the urban and natural world. From the Martels' distinctly cubist inspired interpretation of nature, Boyce extracted a grid based vocabulary of geometric shapes that he has since used as a basis for all aspects of his practice. Once familiar with this visual code it becomes identifiable ubiquitously, in everything from his photographic and print-based work, to his sculptures and installations.
No comments:
Post a Comment