Roger Hiorns
Roger Hiorns’ sculptural practice meditates on the act of artistic creation, observing what happens when the process is handed over to reactive, “living” material and its metamorphoses. Copper Sulphate Chartres and Copper Sulphate Notre-Dame and Leaning Chartres With Cobalt and Copper Crystals, both from his Goldsmiths degree show in 1996, as well as his more recent large-scale installation ‘Seizure’, highlight his apparently no-hands method: a chemical solution is allowed to precipitate and take over an existing object or space, and a found form and its meaning is transformed, as if by self-design. The way crystal formations shape themselves on these cardboard models creates a living sculpture, reminiscent of creeping ivy on statues, of historical ruin; it also undoubtedly recalls the slow-forming processes of geology, suggesting a latent constant potential for material transformation.
Hiorns work thus refers to themselves: to the material of which they consist, to the form they have and to the tension that occurs between them. Hiorns: 'The works are successful if they are self-contained and need nothing else. They exist by their own language.'
A characteristic for Hiorns' working method is the combination of two basic elements, which are simultaneously opposite and supplementing each other: ceramic pots with moving foam, metal with fire, a car engine with growing crystals, steel with perfume, even glass fibre with brain matter. The relation between the movable and the immovable, the living and the dead yields an undeniable tension in his work. Like a modern-day alchemist Hiorns transforms the objects and materials to give them a new function and meaning.
Reflection
I was fortunate to see for myself some of Hiorns work in the Saartchi Gallery a couple of years ago, the first thing that captured my attention of course was the sparkles, but what kept my attention after that was the contrast between rough man-made engine, and beautiful natural crystal formations. The contrast of these two seemingly apposing entities collide to create an exciting piece of contemporary art. The crystals are used to beautify the otherwise condemned engine block, yet the contrast of the blue still portrays a sense of disease or sickness. As I start to experiment with salt crystals within my own practice, I draw inspiration from Hiorns work, giving objects a new function and meaning through the transformation and transfiguration the salt water process creates.
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