Twos, 2023
Various objects and materials
Twos is a body of sculptural works, each comprising a joining of two objects, transforming their relation and creating a new hybrid object. The series stages a meeting of unlike items from different contexts, combined to unlock both unsettling and comical potential. The objects that make up Twos are arranged to connect or enter into each other, circling the question of where one thing ends and another one begins. Arranged in their improvised couplings, the objects appear as stuck, partially hidden or submerged. They intrude and penetrate, pass through, stick out and spill over each other’s edges, invoking actions of sheltering and holding, containing and probing.
In each of the works, the two connected elements can be seen as a new entity in its own right – part one thing and part another – while both of its constituent parts find themselves in a precarious predicament regards space, stability and function. The hybrid objects meanwhile continue to carry associations from the individual items they’re made from – evoking their habitual use and history while also displacing them from their previous function and location, and placing them in a new, ‘unresolvable’ relation. The works in the Twos series suggest ideas around symbiosis, intimacy, equivalency, collaboration, entanglement, but at the same time there is something parasitic in the way one object “finds ways” to connect to another. I’m interested in this dual symbiotic/parasitic relation – at once, a relation of mutual support and spatial opportunism.
Made using gestures of insertion, support, leaning, stacking and balancing, with no hardware or glues, the arrangements of objects that comprise Twos can only ever be seen as temporary. The process of combining materials to form makeshift structures using decidedly provisional construction methods, while making new propositions for compound objects, at the same time raises the possibility of dismantling: as things have been put together, so can they be taken apart. For me, these are processes with social as well as political and psychological implications.
Twos (Spindle + Gourd), 2023
Iron staircase spindle, gourd
Twos (Spool + Rake), 2023
Wood-and-metal spool, metal rake
Twos (Lampshade + Gourd), 2023
Spun fibreglass lampshade, gourd
Twos (Cones + Balls), 2023
Cardboard cones, tennis ball, billiard ball
Twos (Tunnel + String), 2023
Carving wax tube, string
Twos (Buffer + Hose + Pipe), 2023
Rubber buffer, aluminium hose, aluminium pipe
Twos (Lampshade + Football Bowel), 2023
Spun fibreglass lampshade, woven football bowel
Twos (Cone + Bobbin), 2023
Waxed cardboard cone, wood-and-metal bobbin
Twos (Bar + Pipes), 2023
Wooden bar with metal pipe, glass tube
Twos (Football Shell + Mirror Ball), 2023
Leather football shell, mirror ball
Twos (Spool + Coil), 2023
Wood-and-metal spool, steel coil
Twos (Cone + Bowling Pin), 2023
Waxed cardboard cone, wooden bowling pin
Twos (Cone + Jump Rope), 2023
Waxed cardboard cone, wood-and-rope jump rope
Twos (Basketball Hoop + Ruler), 2023
Steel basketball hoop, wood-and-metal ruler
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Works on the wall by Simon Callery, from our 2-person show at annex14 in Zurich, 14 April – 20 May 2023.