Martin Creed
Work No. 2329
2015
Imitation wood grain
215.8 x 216.4 x 7 cm / 85 x 85 1/4 x 2 3/4 in
Photo: Alex Delfanne
Martin Creed at Hauser & Wirth Zürich Hauser & Wirth Zürich is pleased to present an exhibition of new work from Martin Creed. 29 August – 31 October 2015.]]>
Source: Hauser & Wirth Zürich
For Creed, there is no border between life and art. His approach means that he can use any form of expression or media, since the key element for him is the process of creation – in his words, ‘trying to live life better’. Frequently he will make works that develop out of a set of instructions or rules he imposes on himself. Seeing what happens when certain components are tied down is typical of the playful spirit in which he lets his ideasdevelop. For instance, in a work such as ‘Work No. 2209 Woman with dog at a table’ (2015), Creed painted without a visual source, using only the verbal cues from listening to someone else describing a photograph.
Creed also experiments by means of accumulation, often creating forms of progression in size, height, tone, or by presenting things ordered, classified or stacked to create idiosyncratic and purposeless taxonomies. ‘Work No. 1804’ (2014) consists of a modular steel framework, containing as many different types of clear and textured glass that were available at the time of production. A similar system can be seen in the vibrant ‘Work No. 2329’ (2015), where 12 individual wooden boards painted in different colours of imitation wood grain form a polychromatic field.
Creed respects things for the way they are, often engaging in very minimal interventions, in a way letting materials speak for themselves. ‘Work No. 2309’ (2015) and Work No. 2157’ (2015) each consist of 16 uniform bands of different coloured wool, one set of which consists of a range of all the available un-dyed natural fibres, the other a randomly arranged complete spectrum of dyed varieties. This play with ideas of series and sequences, variation and repetition, is in Creed’s case an end in itself, the seed or ingredient for making a picture and the picture itself.
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Lee Lozano: Drawings & Paintings at Hauser & Wirth (exhibition, 2015)
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