Liam Gillick. That is right, the man whose
imagination can take him
anywhere. A transparent master of the question of Modernity?
Cat
lover? Designer/author/theorist/artist/architect? The son Donald
Judd never wanted? Enigma cloaked in riddle? Relational
Aesthetic
celebrity? All these things and more... We at Bad at Sports try
and
get to the bottom of Liam's magic in this hour-long interview.
The last element in Liam Gillick's 4 part global retrospective,
"Three perspectives and a short scenario" will run through January
10th at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.
Accompanying that exhibition, Gillick has produced "The one hundred
and sixty-third floor: Liam Gillick Curates the Collection," which
is also be on view.
Liam Gillick emerged in the early 1990s as part of a
re-energized British art scene, producing a sophisticated body of
work ranging from his signature "platform" sculptures --
architectural structures made of aluminum and colored Plexiglas
that facilitate or complicate social interaction -- to wall
paintings, text sculptures, and published texts that reflect on the
increasing gap between utopian idealism and the actualities of the
world.
His work joins that of generational peers such as Rirkrit
Tiravanija and Philippe Parreno in defining what critic Nicholas
Bourriaud described as "relational aesthetics," an approach that
emphasizes the shifting social role and function of art at the turn
of the millennium. Gillick's work has had a profound impact on a
contemporary understanding of how art and architecture influence,
and are themselves influenced by, interpersonal communication and
interactions in the public sphere.
This exhibition is presented in association with the Witte de With
in Rotterdam, Kunsthalle Zurich, and the Kunstverein in Munich. It
is the most significant and comprehensive exhibition of Gillick's
work in an American museum to date, comprising a major
site-specific installation in the gallery ceiling as well as a
presentation of his design and published works, and a film
documenting projects from the entirety of his career. The MCA is
the only American venue for the exhibition.
About the Podcast
Bad At Sports is a weekly podcast about contemporary art. Founded in 2005, badatsports.com focuses on presenting the practices of artists, curators, critics, dealers, various other arts professionals through an online audio format.