“People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful, an amazement and a pleasure.”
Continuing his interest in natural phenomena and its physical, aesthetic translation, Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone presents three new bodies of work at Sadie Coles HQ in his latest exhibition, ‘clouds and mountains and waterfalls’.
Running from now until October 2015, the exhibition takes over the gallery with colourful depictions of mountainous-like matter, sky-shaped canvases and spiralling metallic streams which each conjure distinct imagery of nature through artificial creations.
The most visually compelling element of the exhibit centres around Rondinone’s new mountain sculptures, which comprise of stacks of rocks vertically assembled on concrete plinths. The range in texture and size, from two to six slabs, reference hoodoos which are naturally-occurring spires commonly found in desert areas.
Translating the project in to something more contemporary, each stone is painted a different fluorescent colour, while the composition of the structure seems to defy gravity in their teetering formations, as many of the sculptures lean towards an anthropometric quality.
Conversely, the ‘cloud’ series is represented though large painted canvasses comprising of sky blue constellations. Rectangular surfaces merge into cloud-like cartoon borders- forming an entirety of time and space.
The ‘waterfall’ sculptures form the last leg in the exhibition, with the collection comprised of thin, freestanding lines modelled by hand in clay and cast in aluminium, with the spiralling forms evoking jets of water.
Staying loyal to Rondinone’s heritage of creating natural phenomena like the moon, sun and air, his latest ‘clouds, mountains and waterfalls’ represents a ‘mental trinity’ that evokes the feeling, emotion and passion that has moulded his illustrious twenty-year career.
