Also currently on show at the Hayward Gallery in London is this bed curling round on itself by Cuban artists Los Carpinteros, part of an exhibition of work exploring interior design.
Above and top: Cama by Los Carpinteros
Called The New Décor, the exhibition features work by 30 artists and explores the evolution of interior and exterior environments.
Above: Sternbau No.3 by Lee Bul
The artists have reinvented and reconfigured familiar domestic objects to create provocative sculptures and installations.
Above: A Thing Called Gearbox by Urs Fischer
The exhibition will run at the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre in London until 5 September.
See our earlier story of Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto's The Edges of the World exhibition, also currently on display at the Hayward.
Above: 5, Rue Saint-Benoît by Haegue Yang
Photographs are by David Levene.
Above: Smoke Spheres 2-4 by Angela Bulloch
Here's some more information from the Southbank Centre:
THE NEW DÉCOR - Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre. 19 June - 5 September 2010
This summer the Hayward Gallery presents The New Décor; an international survey of over 30 contemporary artists, including some of the leading sculptors of our time, who explore interior design as a means of engaging with changes in contemporary culture. By reconfiguring and reinventing the familiar objects of our domestic life, these artists look beyond design and function to create provocative sculptures and installations. Along with a solo exhibition of Ernesto Neto which runs concurrently in the upper galleries, The New Décor is a highlight of Festival Brazil, a major summer festival celebrating the dynamic culture of today’s Brazil, sponsored by HSBC.
The exhibition features work by 30 artists including: Martin Boyce (Britain), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Jimmie Durham (USA), Elmgreen & Dragset (Scandinavia), Gelitin (Austria), Mona Hatoum (Lebanon), Jim Lambie (Britain), Sarah Lucas (Britain), Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Ugo Rondinone (Switzerland), Doris Salcedo (Colombia), Rosemary Trockel (Germany), Tatiana Trouve (Italian), Franz West (Austrian).
Above: Untitled (2004) by Gelitin
Like the Hayward’s previous summer exhibitions, Psycho Buildings and Walking in My Mind, and Ernesto Neto’s exhibition, the artists in The New Décor are concerned with the evolution of our interior and exterior environments. They shed light on their experiences and ask the viewer to consider their own relationship to the spaces they inhabit and look again at objects they may take for granted.
Curated by Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery, the exhibition draws on artists from around the world, but what unites them is their ability to transform objects we associate with the everyday – a bed, a shelf, a lamp – into something uncanny and compelling.
In French the word décor refers to stage sets as well as interior design, and in a similar spirit the works in this exhibition explore an arena between practicality and imagination, theatre and everyday life.
Ralph Rugoff, said:
“The New Decor challenges visitors’ perceptions of their own environment and explores a new chapter in the history of exhibitions looking at art and design. By drawing out the social, historical and personal stories which are embedded in the furnishings that surround us, these artists aim to open up the discussion about interior space in different parts of the world, and in different social contexts, with interpretations ranging from the absurd to the abject to the lyrical.”
Many of the artists in the show have been commissioned to make new works, or are remaking works specifically for the Hayward Gallery space. Gelitin, the Austrian collective famous for turning one of the Hayward sculpture courts into a floating boating lake for Psycho Buildings, are creating an eerie chandelier, reminiscent of a giant spider descending from the sky. British sculptor Martin Boyce also tackles lighting in his remake of Some Broken Morning, which has the appearance of a giant white neon spider’s web made from strip lighting which hovers above the visitor.
Above: Detail of Night Sky... by Spencer Finch
The Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone has created a double door for the gallery, firmly secured by a batten of wood - what lies beyond it will remain unknown. Diango Hernández’s sculptural tableau features familiar objects from the home environment. Elements of the work are fixed to a revolving platform, so the work is only ‘complete’ when all the pieces fit together once in every cycle. The Cuban artists Los Carpinteros have created a bed inspired by a Los Angeles freeway overpass.
The New Décor runs concurrently with a monographic exhibition of the work of Ernesto Neto. His largest and most ambitious exhibition in the UK to date, the exhibition features a series multi-sensory installations and sculptures. Neto’s work is also included in The New Décor, forging a link between the two exhibitions.
See also:
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| The Edges of the World by Ernesto Neto | Psycho Buildings at The Hayward |
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