Yes, paying homage to her work was definitely something I was considering. It has the theme of holes inside the sculptures, and ‘Three Perpetual Chords’ is almost like a diagram of a hole. I think her work played around with the idea of sculptures passing through each other, and I think ‘Three Perpetual Cords’ is very much taking on that idea. I remember when the Hepworth was stolen from Dulwich Park and you have now helped fill the void with ‘Three Perpetual Cords’. Was it quite a challenge to live up to? There are many ways in which they are connected and one of the similarities, as I mentioned earlier, is how both artists and scientists try to represent visually things that can’t be seen. This leads to a sort of imaginative conundrum: how do you represent the invisible? Scientists have to represent things smaller than the wavelength of light and things that don’t really make a lot of sense, and it is a tall order to convey ideas to the general public or to people who are not mathematicians. It involves the imagination and a lot of subjective decisions. How would you describe the connection between Art and Science? It was great. Being an artist is a tricky thing, and to be endorsed by someone and given a sign that people are interested in my work is fantastic. To be given an opportunity to create work is also fantastic. It felt terrific. How did it feel when you became the youngest living member of the Royal Academy of Arts? I read that you owned a black Ford Capri. Have you always been interested in cars and machinery, and do you still have the Capri? I used to be more interested in cars than I am now, but I still have a black Ford Capri, although it doesn’t have a roof structure any more. The original one was sadly stolen. I don’t know who stole it – it just disappeared from outside my house. Certainly, I think that’s a good way of describing me. I create the instrument, which is the machine itself and the artwork is the dance piece that I’ve choreographed. The machines using light and other materials are not so easy to choreograph, but by fine-tuning them I can make them move in exactly the right way. So you could say that they don’t really have the versatility of the instrument and the music responds to that choreography, which is the reverse of how it would normally work – the choreography usually comes after the music. Do you see yourself as a choreographer of your machines? And does dance inspire you? I’m doing a big installation called ‘The Dappled Light of the Sun’ at the Royal Academy courtyard. It will be installed from end of May to run with the Summer Exhibition. What is your next project?
Pictured : ‘The Dappled Light of the Sun’, 2015, Conrad Shawcross’ installation at the Royal Academy, London. Photograph by Marc Wilmot. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London.
‘Hopefully it will feel quite rational and scientific, like envisioned information of something that can’t be seen as part of our normal world’
Conrad Shawcross
Pictured : ‘Three Perpetual Chords’ (2015) in Dulwich Park.
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