{"id":2228,"date":"2018-09-06T15:23:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T15:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonings.com\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2018-10-18T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T16:43:09","slug":"object-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=2228","title":{"rendered":"Surreal Science at the Whitechapel: Object lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Visiting\u00a0Surreal Science at London’s Whitechapel Gallery for\u00a0<\/a>New Scientist,\u00a08 September 2018<\/a><\/p>\n

WHENEVER the artist Salvatore Arancio visits a new city, he heads for the nearest natural history museum. He goes partly for research: his eclectic output, spanning photography and ceramics, explores how we categorise and try to understand natural and geological processes.<\/p>\n

In the main, though, Arancio wants to be overwhelmed. \u201cA lot of these collections are so vast, after a while you find yourself wandering around in a spaced-out state, inventing mental landscapes and narratives. It\u2019s that feeling I\u2019m trying to evoke here,\u201d he tells me as we watch the assembly of his new show, Surreal Science, a collaboration with art patron George Loudon.<\/p>\n

Loudon famously collected work by Damien Hirst and his generation years before they became global celebrities \u2013 until the day a canvas he bought wouldn\u2019t fit through his door.<\/p>\n

At that point, Loudon turned to the books, images and models (in clay, felt, glass and plaster) that educated 19th-century science students. \u201cLooking back, I can see the move was a natural one,\u201d Loudon says. \u201cArtists like Hirst and Mark Dion were exploring the way we catalogue and represent the world. Around the time that collection felt complete I was travelling to South America a lot, and I became interested in the scientific discoveries made there \u2013 by Charles Darwin, Alexander von Humboldt, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a collection in the sense that there is any demarcation to it. \u201cIt\u2019s somebody\u2019s personal eye that chooses this over that,\u201d says Loudon. Nevertheless, a clear theme has emerged: how the explosion of science in the 19th century meant that scientists had to turn artist to produce educational materials for students. And, when the burden became too much, how companies of artisans emerged to satisfy the demand.<\/p>\n

Loudon\u2019s collection has been shown before, at the Manchester Museum last year, but Surreal Science is a different enterprise. The objects, designed to be handled, are exhibited here on open shelves, bringing the visitor tantalisingly close to the work in a very un-museumlike manner. Needless to say this makes for a nerve-racking build.<\/p>\n

This is the moment of truth for Arancio, who had to plan this installation-cum-exhibition armed only with photographs of Loudon\u2019s collection and sheets of careful measurements. It is the first chance he has had to see his arrangements realised in situ.<\/p>\n

The ceramic pieces he has created provide a foil for the items in Loudon\u2019s collection. An arrangement of ceramic flowers above an anatomical cut-away torso suggests a mandrake-like marriage of vegetable and human. Next to it is a discomforting juxtaposition of plaster models of teeth and wax copies of lemons. Models of cell division are easily mistaken for geodes. Again and again, Arancio\u2019s ceramic pieces \u2013 pools, leaves, corals and tubular spider forms \u2013 mislead the eye, so we miscatalogue what we see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to create pieces that carried George\u2019s objects off into some kind of fantastic realm,\u201d says Arancio. Even before key elements of the show are installed \u2013proper lighting, a looping educational film from 1935 and an experimental soundtrack by The Focus Group \u2013 it is clear that the experiment has succeeded.<\/p>\n

For Loudon, it is a vindication of his decision to collect objects that until recently weren\u2019t recognised by the fine-art market. He moves from shelf to shelf, past exquisite Blaschka glass slugs, felt fungi, a meticulously repaired elephant bird egg. \u201cNow these objects have lost their original purpose, we can look at them as objects of beauty,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not claiming that this is art forever. I am saying it is art for today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting\u00a0Surreal Science at London’s Whitechapel Gallery for\u00a0New Scientist,\u00a08 September 2018 WHENEVER the artist Salvatore Arancio visits a new city, he heads for the nearest natural history museum. He goes partly for research: his eclectic output, spanning photography and ceramics, explores … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[616,619,78],"tags":[8,534,315,394,232,306],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-museums","category-reviews-and-opinion","tag-art","tag-ceramics","tag-exhibition","tag-natural-history","tag-new-scientist","tag-whitechapel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2380,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}