JANE SIMPSON
Somewhere (between freezing and melting)
9-16 FEBRUARY 2004
Sandra Gering Gallery is pleased to present British artist Jane Simpson’s ice sculpture Somewhere (between freezing and melting) there lies passion II from 9-16 February 2004. More an event than an exhibition, the sculpture will melt in the gallery over the course of the installation.
In its freshly created form, the ice sculpture will resemble Group 1 (concourse) 1951, a marble sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. As the piece melts, the corners and carving marks will soften, giving way to a smoother surface and more flowing curves, accentuated by the glow of the melting ice. While evolving in this unpredictable manner, the figures sculpted by Hepworth will, in effect, come to life. Interaction between individual figures will change; their behavior will be capricious. Simpson intends the sculpture to be infused with all of the complexities and anxieties that arise at social occasions. The artist also speaks of wanting to highlight the sensuous aspects of Hepworth’s forms, a quality that would not have been emphasized or embraced during the time in which the sculpture was created.
Jane Simpson is known for her elegant sculptures that transform the familiar, bringing a magical quality to quotidian objects. Teacups, a balustrade, a sewing machine are created in unexpected materials such as rubber and ice. Simpson’s series of sculptural still lifes of rubber objects clustered together are simultaneously three-dimensional Morandi paintings and intimate, somewhat tense, family portraits.
This is Jane Simpson’s first project with Sandra Gering Gallery. She has had solo projects recently at Galeria Javier Lopez in Madrid, Gagosian Gallery, London, and the Goteborg Konstmuseum in Goteborg, Sweden, among many others. Simpson’s work was included in the landmark exhibitions Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, curated by Damien Hirst, and Sensation (Young British Artsts from the Saatchi Collection). A monograph on Simpson’s work, Fresh Fresher, was recently published by Other Criteria, London, with an introduction by Norman Rosenthal.
