Nick Hornby & Sinta Tantra: Collaborative Works
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Nick Hornby & Sinta Tantra : Journal Vol 114 (2011) he claimed that he grapples with Collaborative Works the transition of an idea into reality, interpretation and narrative. Not so very unusual for an artist, but his artistic Working in collaboration means that the participants journey so far shows his aims clearly. must negotiate, and when two artists work together this In this exhibition, Hornby’s sculpture The Horizon may be tricky. The general assumption is that the artist Comes (Ted Hughes) 2010 has been recreated as The works alone and is egocentric, answering only to the self, Horizon Comes in Chinese Blue, Hague Blue, Archive, the sounding board being self-discipline, looking at art Railings, Cornforth, Bubblicious and Firefly Red 2012. that has gone before and that of his or her peers. When Made in a composite of marble and resin this sculpture working together, voicing opinion, providing critical referenced forms found in Elisabeth Frink’s (193 0–1993) analysis and exercising mutual respect requires both Horse and Rider 1975 that stands in Piccadilly; strength and tact. Constantine Brancusi’s (187 6–1957) The Cock 1924 and Nick Hornby and Sinta Tantra met when studying at Alexander Calder’s (189 8–1976) Flamingo 1974, which is the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, located in the Federal Plaza in front of the Kluczynski from which they graduated in 2003 – Tantra went on to Federal Building in Chicago . The scale of Calder’s sculpture study further at the Royal Academy Schools and is phenomenally large, standing at some fifty-three feet developed her work along the lines of colour and tall. Aspects of each installation while Hornby, after a year at Chelsea College of these pieces may e u g 2 a 1 H 0 of Art, set up his studio practice as a sculptor. He works be readily identified , 2 e d u l e B R items by past masters of sculpture and architecture into in Hornby’s e y l s f e e n r i vital and complex three-dimensional puzzles. Tantra had sculpture, but i h F C d n n i a already collaborated with others, in particular with particularly clear are s s e u m o i o c dancers and choreographers (such as Made by Katie Calder’s arching i C l b n b o z u Green), providing environments in which the dancers form, the hooves of i B r , o h H t r e played out their compositions. The terms of engagement Frink’s horse and the o h f T n r a r o t between the visual artist and the dancers were not cock’s comb. C n , a s T g a n t difficult, as each had distinct roles. However, in the case However, the i l n i i a S R , & of two visual artists working together Hornby and Tantra sculpture now has e y v i b h n r c r have found that they had to plan very carefully and the complicating o A H , k e c u i converse frequently. overlay of colour, l B N Their first pieces took the form of straightforward initiated by Sinta application of Tantra’s colour to Hornby’s sculpture, Tantra but decided upon by both artists working together. through which they found the need to be rigorous in The new title pays reference to the colour names of terms of composition and form. Would the sculpture be industrial paints. Painting the sculpture is the vital step 2 1 compromised or enhanced by this or that pattern? Might 0 that takes the forms onto another plane, further 2 e p i the form be more meaningful with linear motifs or blocks p disguising or revealing the elements that Hornby took n w o of colour? Which colours might best suit the scale of the D into his sculpture in the first place. d n a sculpture? Would only certain sculptures be right for this Hornby’s The Broken Man 2010 is also made in a e n i d treatment? On the other hand, how might Hornby give a composite of marble and resin, and again is overlaid by n r a c n form to Tantra’s palette and shapes – her abstract I Tantra’s colour and pattern, thereby reborn as The , k n i compositions, or her exotic imagery? Further along in P Broken Man in Cornforth, Hague Blue, Arsenic, Lush h s u L their preparation for this exhibition, they worked together Pink, Incarnadine and Downpipe 2012. The form comes , c i n e from first principles, coming up with proposals for s from Auguste Rodin’s (184 0–1917) The Walking Man r A , e innovative interventions into the fabric of the Lobby of u 1877–78, Barnet Newman’s (190 5–1970) Fallen Obelisk l B e One Canada Square, which has provided another u 1963 and again, Brancusi’s The Cock . When visiting g a H dimension to their collaborative endeavour. , Hornby’s studio during the course of the artists’ work for h t r o f Nick Hornby began making his name as a sculptor of n this exhibition, we observed on the studio wall numerous r o C note in 2008 when he won the Clifford Chance Sculpture n computer-generated images of the sculpture overlaid i n a Prize, making pieces – some on an ambitious scale – M with differing blocks and lines of colour. These formed n e k largely, but not exclusively, in white. He developed o the basis of decisions the artists made together about the r B e abstract forms through analysing and combining aspects h final surface of the existing white sculpture. The T a r t of sculpture by modern masters with architects from n animation that colour and pattern gives to the three- a T a t n many periods. His challenge was to find a new and vital i dimensional form has the power to change, transforming S & language through reshaping, moving, distorting and y the object into something dynamic, calm, jazzy or b n r o therefore reinterpreting (existing) form into something H symphonic. k c i new and fresh. In an article he wrote for The Ampleforth N I found my friends, they’re in my head, in Cornforth, Hague Blue, Railings, Drawing Room, Chinese Blue, Expo 1958 designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn Nick Hornby , born in 1980, is a rising, young sculptor living and Lush Pink and Bubblicious 2012, in its first purely white with interiors by architects André and Jean Polak. The working in London. He studied at Wimbledon College of Art 1999, the Art Institute of Chicago 2003, the Slade School of form, was based on eighteenth-century sculpted portraits transformations give the clearest insight to the way in Fine Art, University College London 2003 and Chelsea College of Sculpture at Work in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which Hornby finds his sculptural imagery. Art 2007. Since his exhibition on graduating from the Slade in London: Sir Francis Chantrey’s (1781–1841) Bust of John With her installation Le Bonheur II 2013, Sinta 2003, Hornby’s work has been included in group exhibitions, : Raphael Smith 1725, who was a famous printmaker; Tantra has taken the opportunity to create one of her mostly in London, but also in regional galleries in Britain and in s India, Greece, the United States and Poland. He has also had a Sir Thomas Banks’ (173 5–1805) Bust of Dr Anthony colour compositions using vinyl covering one of the k solo exhibitions in London and New York. r Addington 1790, a distinguished doctor who specialised windows of the Lobby. The transformation of a familiar r Hornby’s work may be found in the collections of Andaz t 1 5th Avenue New York; Clifford Chance; Richard Greer; David o in the treatment of mental illness and Joseph Nollekens’ 1 feature that is seen, but probably not really noticed, by 0 n 2 Roberts; Selfridges and Sony BMG. His most recent commission, s Bust of Sir George p the many people who e e Old Shapes New Brutality 2012 in powder coated aluminium, a l S 3 r Savile c. 1743, pass by every day, 1 W e 0 which stands 4 metres high, was made for the Third Mediations v 2 T e I I N r a well-known has become through Biennale in Poznan, Poland, and is located at the Poznan-Lawica u h c e e r h Airport. nickhornby.com A n politician . Interestingly her intervention a o n B A v e n m t L the portraits of both something strange o o i r r i t f o Sinta Tantra , a British artist of Balinese descent, was born in c f l u l I i d t Addington and Savile and transient. The G s o t n r C New York in 1979. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, , , P y a b r i & t n were based on death r colours reflect those University College London 1999–2003 and at the Royal n t o a a n i T H r a P k Academy Schools 2004–06. Tantra is well regarded for her site- t S c masks. Hornby’s she has used in the r i n i m N S specific murals and installations – many in the public realm. m a J sculpture is one of a permanent painting y These include works for Canterbury Christ Church University, o b d e number he made in 2010 on the themes of Patrons, titled A Beautiful Sunset Mistaken for a Dawn 2012 on t Transport for London’s Art on the Underground programme & n i b r P Muses and Professionals that were exhibited at the the DLR bridge crossing Middle Dock at Canary Wharf.