Conrad Shawcross 2018
Continuing the Momart tradition started over 30 years ago of an annual Christmas gift by a leading British artist, we are delighted to present to you the 2018 Momart Christmas Card.
This year the tradition continues with “Murmuration Sequence” — an optic disc by Conrad Shawcross.
CONRAD SHAWCROSS
Throughout his career, Conrad Shawcross RA (b. 1977) has experimented with ideal geometries, topologies and progressions. Invariably based on systems, his works sometimes contain a mechanical element and often pay tribute to some of the great pioneers and analysts of our age. Cloaked in the aesthetic of rational design, his works appear to be useful, forcing the viewer to consider their purpose or function. Yet the works remain illusive as they defy final definition, and remain in the realm of the philosophical, metaphysical and conceptual. Through their failure as systems and models, they succeed as art works, asking questions rather than answering them.
Shawcross has completed a number of major public commissions across the world, including Paradigm, a permanent installation outside the Francis Crick Institute at UCL in London and the 18-metres tall Exploded Paradigm inside the atrium of the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. He has most recently been selected by Crossrail and the City of London as one of nine artists to complete a public art commission for stations on the new Elizabeth line, to be installed in 2019.
MURMURATION SEQUENCE
“Murmuration Sequence” is the culmination of years of investigation into interference and disrupted surfaces created through a moiré pattern. Two perforated surfaces come in and out of phase to create a shifting arrangement that appears almost holographic as it swarms and evolves, reacting to the movements of the changing play of light upon it. The work makes use of similar techniques developed by the artist in his sculptures such as The Optic Cloak, at the Greenwich Peninsula Low Carbon Energy Centre in London, and the Optic Labyrinth (Arrangement I), which was on display as part of Frieze Sculpture Park 2018 at London’s Regent’s Park.