Go See: ‘Statuephilia’ at The British Museum today through January 25th
October 4th, 2008
Marc Quinn, Siren, 2008, Gold - via Telegraph
Today, The British Museum opened Statuephilia - a show of five major contemporary sculptures by five leading British artists - Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Ron Mueck, Antony Gormley, and Noble and Webster. The works are placed separately throughout the museum’s permanent collection in their respective relevant historical contexts. The exhibition includes Siren, Marc Quinn’s life size solid 18 carat gold statue of Kate Moss in a Yoga position which is set in the museum’s Nereid Room among ancient statues of Greek goddesses which was previously covered by AO here.
Images from Statuephilia [Telegraph]
Statuephilia Opens [Art Daily]
Kate Moss: The Muse [Independent]
Marc Quinn Immortalizes Kate Moss [TimesUK]
Solid gold Moss statue revealed [BBC]
Statuephilia at The British Museum Website
More images and links after the jump.
Marc Quinn, Siren, 2008, Gold - via British Museum
Ron Mueck, Mask II, 2001/2002, Mixed Media
Photo via British Museum
Ron Mueck’s giant sleeping self-portrait Mask II is located in the Living and Dying: Welcome Trust Gallery next to Hoa Hakananai’a, a maoi (human figure made of stone) from Rapa Nui (Easter Island.)
Hoa Hakananai’a, From Orongo, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Polynesia, around AD 1000 via British Museum
Ron Mueck, Mask II, 2001/2002, Mixed Media via BBC
Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Dark Stuff, 2008
Various mummified animals, metal stand, light projector via British Museum
Noble and Webster’s Dark Stuff recalls the ancient Egyptian belief that deities could take the form of animals such as cats, dogs and birds as well as the practice of breeding these animals to later be mummified and offered back to the gods. Noble and Webster have assembled the mummified remains of various animals caught by their pet cats over the past few years, arranging these remains to create projected silhouettes of the two artists’ own faces.
Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Dark Stuff, 2008
Various mummified animals, metal stand, light projector
Photo via BBC
Antony Gormley, A Case for Angel I, 1989, Plaster, fibreglass, lead, steel - via British Museum
Antony Gormley’s A Case for Angel I stands at the entrance to the museum. Unlike his later monumentally sized Angel of The North, and apart from the 8 1/2 meter wingspan the body of this angel is human-sized. According to The British Museum’s website, A Case for Angel I serves as “a metaphor for humanity’s capacity to imagine and create, particularly appropriate at the entrance to a museum that celebrates those very endeavours.”
Antony Gormley, A Case for Angel I, 1989, Plaster, fibreglass, lead, steel, air - via BBC
Damien Hirst’s Cornucopia, 200 plastic spin-painted skulls, is contained within 8 antique wall cabinets in The British Museum’s Enlightenment Room. The format of Cornucopia recalls the Englightenment’s scientific inclination to collect, study, and classify and to explain natural phenomenon rationally. However, the paint splatter patterns on the skulls evokes more spooky and ritualistic notions which human kind has been unable to leave behind despite how much scientific progress and understanding it achieves.
Damien Hirst, Cornucopia, 2008, Household gloss paint on plastic skulls - via British Museum
Statuephilia is on view at The British Museum, October 4, 2008 - January 25, 2009
-rebecca@artobserved.com
