Whilst at the Baltic centre for Contemporary Art, I discovered an artist whose work I had never come across before. I really enjoyed American artist Sarah Sze’s installation ‘Tilting Planet’.I found this work very engaging, thought provoking and inspiring. Can you tell that I am quite taken with this artist lol! I made some notes whilst viewing the work; –
orderly disorder: a new order?
“Sarah Sze uses a mixture of found and everyday objects, placing them in very unusual ways. These force a interaction between the object and the viewer. The spaces and patterns that are formed and the negative spaces left also form a narrative. Lots of strings run around the room everywhere, forming tracks and boundaries and also act as a guide to which direction to take.
small ecosystems co exist side by side
Grass blades grow through baskets. The sound of running water can be heard. Space is a consideration, both enclosed and boundaries. A string impedes a fan’s oscillating movement. It makes me reflect on the way that small nuances can effect bigger issues.
meaningful things
Colour swatches fan out in gradients, gradually fading away to nothing. Environmental issues: stones leaving a mark on the floor: a natural footprint. Blue pins, coloured pillows: all connected in some ways to each other. Pairings of leaves with polystyrene fishes form riddles.
the new planet
Water bottles, half hidden, peep from a torn cotton sheet, whilst jotters and office supplies are piled in an orderly way. Around the corner, sticky taped chairs and tool boxes are all bound up. A red chair lies on its side also taped. Some of the plastic water bottles have been cut so they look like they are growing out of the floor.
global warming or spontaeneous combustion?
An Anglepoise lamps shines down through paper with a hole in it onto another Anglepoise lamp whose beam is throwing light upwards. Underneath lies a fire extinguisher. All sorts of metaphors spring to mind. There is a sense of communication, almost a code running through these little ecosystems.
There is a lot of attention to detail. Cardboard bones and woven grass: a sense of time going backwards. Spent matches, a heavy suspended prism ‘writes’ in a mound of salt, surrounded by unspent matches. There is so much to see here. Small poems and personal stories are being written and read and form tiny windows into the whole picture. I could spend hours in here!!! A hammer is held back by string which is trapped under a brick: tension!”
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