This room presents a single artwork by the artist/artists whose exhibition is next in the program. It is a space directed by the artist, selected to reveal particulars of their current practice or potentials for the future whilst providing essential context ahead of their exhibition.
George Richardson
26 April - 31 May, 2025
Opening Saturday 26 April, 3 - 6pm
Pipeline: What does this space mean for you?
The exhibition I will have at Pipeline comes after two transformative years following my Slade MA degree show. I have treated this introductory space as a chance to test installation ideas and casting techniques as well as key conceptual thinking behind the exhibition. Carefully considering how my works relate to the architecture of the gallery space through their placement and positioning on the wall.
Why have you chosen to present this work in advance of your upcoming exhibition?
‘Boundary I’ is an engraved Newel post - the support structure that denotes the end of a stair bannister. I have treated the wood in a similar state to that of an etching plate, drawing through the removal of material to reveal an image of a domestic liminal space.
Alongside it is ‘Have you been at the controls?’ - a concrete cast thermostat set between 16 and 17 degrees. This is the first sculpture of a new series of concrete and soap casts of objects that will be in the upcoming exhibition.
These works mark a moment of transition and a broadening of the scope of my practice, presenting a domestic space that is guided by curiosity and an active re-imagining of the everyday.
To what extent does it relate to the work in your upcoming show?
‘Twice as tall in the rain’ will be an entirely new body of sculptures that re-contextualise the everyday to create a re-imagined domestic space. These two works ‘in the Pipeline’ provide context to a large-scale corridor installation that will occupy the lower floor of the gallery. The corridor symbolises an unresolving, transitional space of being in-between where bodies usually pass through.
The upstairs gallery will house domestic cast items such as a concrete landline phone, and soap umbrellas. For the upcoming show I am considering not only the object but how its materiality deals with time and the varying states of permanence.
How does this work sit within your overall practice?
‘Have you been at the controls?’ links to wider ideas of my practice through sculptural interventions that remove the function from a domestic object by changing its materiality. Solid brass cast biscuits, an ever ringing phone sculpture and exaggerated picture frames are previous works which have been fundamental in forming this method of working.
My works often imply the presence of a body through the marks they leave on a surface as the traces of a person can be far more telling of their habits and character than the physical body can describe. ‘Boundary I’ is a support object, made from wood, polished through touch. Through the process of making sculpture and installation, I connect to wider ideas around object ontology, being led by an always changing understanding, a curiosity to re-imagine the every day and the boundary that exists between public and private spaces.