About the Artwork
| Nina Saunders has been fashioning domestic objects into odd and subversive works of art that can take on various readings depending on the context. ‘Abstract Mass’ is an armchair made of concrete and stainless steel, which begs the question of displacement. In a diverse city like London, this question gains political, cultural and personal significance. De-contextualized and re-contextualized, the work questions the boundaries between public and private space, between domesticity and domestication, between responding to the city plan and creating a ‘situation’. You are tempted to touch it, even sit on it, but upon closer inspection, you realize its surface is rough and uninviting. Is loneliness hard to bear? Does it make you feel small in a huge space? Abstract Mass is a disruptive work that, in its isolation, makes us re-think of the city and its people, of solace and loneliness, of the material that may seem rough but has enormous potential, just like ourselves. Year: 2008 Ed. Of 6 |
Image Copyright The Artist Image Courtesy New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park,Wiltshire. Photo: © Nick Turpin
Material
Concrete and stainless steel
Dimensions
78 x 78 x 92 cm
Artist Biography
Nina Saunders
Nina Saunders, born in Denmark, lives and works in London. She studied Fine Art and Critical Studies at St Martin’s college of art.
Saunders has exhibited worldwide, including at the Venice Biennale, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Hermes flagship stores. Her works are in numerous museums and private collections and she has received much notoriety for her awards in Denmark.
Saunders works across a wide range of materials and art forms. Her creations are often confounding, appearing on the one hand familiarly domestic and on the other quite humorous. Her artwork encompasses the random, playfulness, the dream and the subconscious. It plays with the function of the object, subversively questioning our ways of thinking and the world we inhabit.