FEATURED – MARC QUINN “FROZEN WAVE”

Best known for his giant sculptures of polished stainless steal Marc Quinn’s impressive works dominate every space alotted to them. Visitors are immediately drawn to the smooth, shiny surfaces and their twisted, dynamic forms – it seems they’re alive and just about to change form and reflection.  The artist himself, howerver, is not interested in the question of beauty but rather in the process of whithering and decay.

Frozen Wave and  The Conservation of Mass have been the two latest series with works almost 25 feet long and nine feet taIl on show at Quinn’s homebase gallery Whiteqube in London. The artist is moving on from figurative and realistic representations to forms that can both be seen as natural or abstract.

Frozen Wave works are based on natural forms of  conch shells, eroded by seas and oceans until nothing is left but a thin, fragile mineral arc, a little wave.The Conservation of Mass again is more abstract but also with strong reference to organic shapes and their constant alterations.

For Quinn these sculptures are a kind of accidental self-portrait, relentless and impervious natural forces leaving an odd echo. And the theme, as the title suggests, is nature derailed and despoiled as we often experience it today. He demonstrates though how ambivalent preception is presenting us images of the degenerate that are still dazzling.

Further from the large scale sculptures Quinn has now come up with Toxic Sublimes – another recent suite we look on: these are subtle but somehow disturbing pieces of crumpled aluminium sheets with dirty sunsets, mostly unrecognisable as such, bonded on their surfaces.

Further from the large scale sculptures Quinn has now come up with Toxic Sublimes – another recent suite we look on: these are subtle but somehow disturbing pieces of crumpled aluminium sheets with dirty sunsets, mostly unrecognisable as such, bonded on their surfaces.

They all start with the same garish sunset, a photograph on canvas. This photograph is sanded and gaffer-taped and then taken out into the streets to be branded by Thames Water manhole covers. These are then applied to the aluminium sheets, which Quinn batters and bends and twists into a sort of seascape.