Alice Anderson

‘Memory exists only when it is recalled, my performances and sculptures are strategies for remembering’

In May 2014 Wellcome Collection will present a major exhibition of works by acclaimed artist, Alice Anderson: ‘Memory Movement Memory Objects’. Anderson’s sculptures are entirely mummified in copper thread, creating glistening landscapes of beautiful, uncanny and transformed objects. Each piece is an exploration and act of memory. Both the making and display of works interrogate how we create, recall, transform and seal the past and imagine the future. Over 100 works will be displayed and, uniquely, visitors will be invited to contribute to the creation of a new work during the run of the exhibition, as a car from the artist’s life is mummified in the gallery.

‘Memory Movement Memory Objects’ will comprise five areas, the first of which, ‘the Factory’, will be an immersive experience, extending the creative process of the artist’s studio into the gallery. Visitors will be able to spend time mummifying a 1967 Ford Mustang and other smaller objects with copper wire, in a performance at once meditative and communal. The sounds of unspooling bobbins of wire and metal enclosing metal will provide a soundtrack to the space, where collaborative focus and repetitive movement elicit a reflection on consciousness which the artist likens to shamanic ritual.

‘Recognisable Objects’ will bring together familiar shapes, from computers, window frames, drawing books and bicycles, to larger structures, such as a staircase and a boat. Both taken from the artist’s studio and created by other, invited, performers, these works will be presented as glittering ensembles. ‘Abstract Objects’ will feature geometric forms where ornamentation is held not in the shape of objects but the shining textured patterns of the copper wire that contains them. ‘Assemblage and Accumulation’ will make unlikely and suggestive alignments, with grouped items bound and encapsulated together. ‘Distorted Objects’ will see new shapes emerge as objects are twisted and transformed by the pressure of wire wound around them, or physical definition is lost to the accretion of copper.

The gallery will carry the mesmerising glint of displayed treasure, akin to entering a Pharaoh’s tomb, but the objects on show are fashioned relics, or new archaeology. Strikingly lit, the sheen of copper is, for the artist, key to the absorbing physical and mental experience of entombing objects. The process of mummification is simultaneously a gesture of protection and an invocation of death, and Anderson’s exquisite sculptures pose challenging questions about the comforts and consolations of creating and sharing memories. Offering an alternative way of remembering, the exhibition will animate the terrain where movement, objects and consciousness meet.

Alice Anderson says: “‘Memory Movement Memory Objects’ brings together works and process in the gallery. The Factory is a place producing a solidarity bound to objects. Each mummified item is a ritual object. Small ones elicit an intense concentration, generating fast motions, whilst larger objects require slower movements that engender deep collaboration and exchanges between people performing the mummification. In both cases, the objects are powerfully charged and carry the collective energy and the identities of the participants in the space.”

Kate Forde, Curator, says: “With this exhibition Alice Anderson shows that even those objects that ‘speak’ to us because of their familiarity are fundamentally altered by our experience of time. Anderson’s invitation to create a social sculpture will enable visitors to discover both the unstable nature of memory and its profoundly creative potential. As we attempt to bridge the gap between then and now we are also called upon to connect with each other, and to move from being onlookers to participants.”

‘Memory Movement Memory Objects’ runs from 22 May to 17 August 2014. A publication and full programme of events will accompany the exhibition.

Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE United Kingdom
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