Summer Exhibition Edit: Susie Allen
Summer Exhibition Edit: Susie Allen
By Susie Allen
Published 11 August 2014
We’ve challenged three guest speakers to choose the five works in this year’s Summer Exhibition that intrigue them the most. Curator Susie Allen guides us through her picks, which all relate to the concept of space.
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Listen to a full audio recording of this tour.
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Conrad Shawcross RA (Wohl Central Hall, Work 4)
“What’s amazing about this piece is that it’s on a very small base. It’s built out of tetrahedrons, and it builds on itself constantly - it goes on and on and gets higher and higher. It’s an incredible feat of engineering.”
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El Anatsui Hon RA (Gallery IX, Work 1176)
“From a distance, although they’re actually made from bottle tops, these pieces look like incredible pieces of fabric. If you look carefully at them, you can see they’re absolutely beautifully made.
"Normally he makes huge tapestry-like pieces that hang on the outside of buildings. I think this is quite an unusual piece for him because it’s a three-dimensional piece - it’s not hanging against a wall. If you look inside it, it’s just as beautiful.”
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Viken Parsons (Lecture Room, Work 1232)
“I think they’re incredibly beautiful paintings. There’s something about an internal space: to me, they’re all about quietness, there’s something very personal [about them]. I think you’ll go away from the exhibition and you’ll look at your own personal space - you’ll look at your own rooms, you’ll look at walls - and you’ll see them in quite a different way.”
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Paul Huxley RA (Gallery III, Work 38)
“He’s got a very flat side to this canvas, but the other side is very much about perspective. What’s interesting is that one side completely negates what the other side does, so the two sides talk to each other. He always has conversations in his paintings.”
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Cornelia Parker RA (Gallery II, Work 105)
“Cornelia is a very interesting artist, she often does things that are slightly wry.
"To me, again, it’s about space. It’s a conceptual way of looking at space… and it’s tongue-in-cheek.”
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Summer Exhibition 2014 is at the RA until 17 August 2014.
Summer Exhibition is sponsored by Insight Investment