Alison Turnbull and Matt Calderwood
9 November 2013–23 February 2014
De La Warr Pavilion
Bexhill-on-Sea
UK
The Modernist architecture of the De La Warr Pavilion and its natural surrounding environment are at the centre of new commissions by Alison Turnbull and Matt Calderwood, who each present solo exhibitions.
Known for intricate abstract works based on found materials such as diagrams, plans and maps, Alison Turnbull presents new paintings and works on paper exploring ideas around observation, orientation and perspective. Two large-scale paintings, Mendelsohn’s Staircase and Einstein’s Tower, stem from the architectural plans of the iconic buildings by Erich Mendelsohn, De La Warr Pavilion (1935) and Einstein Tower Observatory (1921) in Potsdam. Other paintings derive from a range of source material; from a simple diagram of constellations found in a school textbook to a recent photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Also presented are works on paper including Drawing Tables (2010-), an ongoing series of drawings made on printed stationery collected from around the world. Displayed in specially designed vitrines, the drawings are made in response to the subtle differences in the proportions and graphic elements of these everyday papers.
In contrast, Matt Calderwood’s new works open up to chance, allowing the coastal weather and light to choreograph his work. Exploring the physical properties of material and its transformative quality, Exposure Sculptures (2013) are geometric structures made from welded steel clothed in billboard paper. After spending the summer located on the roof, the works have been reassembled in the gallery space; the paper coats reveal a various range of rust marks through the layering of the paper from the exposure to heavy wind, rain and salty air. Papercut (2013), a large-scale collage made from different stocks of newsprints directly applied onto the gallery walls, continues to experiment with the idea of testing materials and observing their changes over a period of time. Beginning with only a subtle visible difference in the paper stocks at the start of the exhibition, the viewers will witness constant changes on the paper, which will emerge as the low winter sunlight enters deep into the gallery space during the exhibition.
Exposure Sculptures are a co-commission between De La Warr Pavilion and BALTIC Gateshead, supported by The Elephant Trust.
Alison Turnbull is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London.
Matt Calderwood is represented by Wilkinson Gallery, London and Sommer& Kohl, Berlin.
Publications
1) Alison Turnbull: Exercise Book featuring sixty images from the Drawing Tables series accompanied by a text by Briony Fer
2) Matt Calderwood: A forthcoming publication documenting his two presentations at BATLIC 39 and De La Warr Pavilion, with an essay by Chris Fite-Wassilak, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation
Press
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