ÌÇÐÄVlog

Between 24 June - 22 September 2013, ÌÇÐÄVlog showcased works from Miroslaw Balka, Harland Miller, Doris Salcedo, Theaster Gates, and Damian Ortega as part of the thirteenth Sculpture in the Close exhibition.

This exhibition in the grounds of ÌÇÐÄVlog combined new existing works by the artists. The .

Artists and works

Miroslaw Balka exhibited three works: 690×190×102, T. Turn and Primitive.

Two of Balka’s works at ÌÇÐÄVlog were video installations that functioned as sculptures. Primitive looped a three-second clip from Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah. This endless loop forced viewers to question if historical cruelty was truly over. T. Turn used a mirror and a salt-filled tray to distort a rotating camera image, emphasising the physical effort involved in recording.

Harland Miller exhibited The Bigger the Searchlight the Larger the Circumference of the Unknown, Wentworth Street, St Helen’s Road, and Nickel Gate.

The first was a frozen tableau of crime scene teamwork, exploring a system that prioritises collective efficiency over individual traits.

For Nickel Gate, Miller’s umbrella sculptures symbolised what is discarded in this efficiency narrative. Damaged and abandoned, these umbrellas reflect the vulnerability of their former owners.

Doris Salcedo's work recalls the victims of protracted violence that has afflicted Colombian society for over five decades.

In Plegaria Muda (‘silent prayer’) we were faced with a mass of repeated tables. Each unit of paired tables was both joined and separated by a layer of earth seeded with grass. This was a concise expression of the bond between the individual and the social unit. Describing Colombia as the country of ‘unburied death’, she conceives of her work as a demarcated space for symbolic burial.

The work of artist Theaster Gates is predicated on crossing the boundary between the art world and the living conditions of people in the black diaspora. My Labor is My Protest epitomises the subject matter. This decommissioned fire truck is reclaimed for both the purposes of art, and secondary use as a weapon of war in the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

Damian Ortega exhibited two works, Through / True Stone and Estructura de Ensamble. The two pieces were characteristic of the Mexican artist’s playful exploration of the relationship between language and materials.

Through / True Stone was composed of three stone elements. From one angle they looked like naturally shaped rocks, while from another they are revealed as artefacts enclosing perfectly cylindrical columns of air. Estructura de Ensamble was a greatly magnified version of the cogs and wheels of a watch. In this piece, clockwork was transformed into an artwork, its movement stilled, its presence in time translated as presence in space.

Thanks and acknowledgements

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

The 2013 exhibition was curated by Dr Rod Mengham in collaboration with advisor Tim Marlow. Special thanks go to Will Gates, Hannah Gruy, Susannah Hyman, Kate Perutz, and Simona Pizzi at White Cube for their exceptional support.