25th April to 31st May 2013 Sumarria Lunn Gallery 36 South Molton Lane Mayfair London W1K 5AB www.sumarrialunn.com
In his second solo exhibition at Sumarria Lunn, David Rickard draws together a collection of experiments that culminate in site-specific and independent considerations of the way in which we organise, perceive and define space.
A large site-specific installation, Peripheries, occupies one half of the gallery with several kilometres of glimmering copper wire mapping out the sight lines from a distant top corner of the space. While it is believed that the ancient Greeks had an understanding of perspective, it is the Italian Renaissance architect and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi who is attributed with first identifying the vanishing point of perspective images. Although this concept underpins interpretation of art, to talk about perspective in representation is really to consider our understanding of, and relationship with space.
Works such as Last Gasp find precedent in historical understandings of perspective. Here Rickard has carefully eroded a cluster of black CO2 cylinders through repeated drilling, to the point where there is significantly more material removed than remaining. The result is a mesh of tiny cylindrical windows revealing the internal structure of each canister. Renaissance master Paolo Uccello created very early net drawings of objects in perfect perspective to similar effect, allowing the viewer to ‘look inside’ the structure of objects such as a ceremonial chalice. Intended to hold pressurised CO2, the gas canisters that make up Last Gasp originally formed compressed spaces. However in drilling out the cylinders to allow a fuller visual understanding of each object, their function and structure is eroded. They now stand like faint memories of their original forms.
While Rickard’s drawings find traditional roots in terms of media, they present an expanded understanding of the medium as a performative act in three dimensions. The Black Pyramid drawings are created by dropping ink onto the paper at a series of pre-defined heights, in a series of experiments that highlight the creative potential of human inaccuracy. By systematically increasing the heights at which the ink is dropped onto the intersections of a pencil grid, a pattern is defined – ranging from orderly droplets at the edge of the drawing, when released close to the paper, to chaotic impacts at the centre where the ink is released from the highest point. The resulting works allow us to understand the path traced by the artist’s hand above the paper in making the work, standing as a lasting representation of the drawing process.
About The Artist
David Rickard studied architecture at the Auckland School of Architecture in New Zealand, before studying art at Brera Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan and Central Saint Martins, London. Solo exhibitions include Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice (2013, forthcoming), Displacements, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice (2012), Testing the Limits, The Nunnery, Bow Arts Trust, London (2011), Time + Trace, Sumarria Lunn Gallery, London (2011), Test Flights, Economist Plaza, London (2010), Mitosis, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Treviso, Italy (2009), Exhaust 19-06-08, Goethe-Institut, London (2008), Solid State, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, (2008) and Dilate, Trolley Gallery, London (2007). Group shows include Zu Haus, LoBe Project Space, Berlin (2012), CALL, Luis Adelantado, Valencia (2012), Intersections – Science in Contemporary Art, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel (2012), David Rickard & Tommy Stockel, LoBe Project Space, Berlin (2012), Out of Control, NEST, The Hague (2012), David Rickard & Franco Vaccari, Scatolabianca, dialogue #1, Independents2, ArtVerona (2011), Round the Clock, 54th Venice Biennale (2011), Beyond Ourselves, Royal Society of Science, London (2011), The Wolfson Syndrome, The Modern Language Experiment, London (2011), Exteriority, Sumarria Lunn, London (2010), Appetite for Destruction, NEST, The Hague (2010), David Rickard/RomeuGoncalves, The Mews Project Space, London (2010), The Jerwood Sculpture Prize, Jerwood Space, London (2005) and Long Live Romance II, Galleria Pack, Milan / Lipanjepuntin, Rome (2005).
