Artist's Talk: Conrad Shawcross
Channel: MUDAM Luxembourg
Date: 2012-01-04

"The Nervous Systems (Inverted)"
08/10/2011 - 06/05/2012
@ Mudam Luxembourg - Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean

"I'm fascinated by ideas of certainty and where science is in terms of string theory and the shape of the universe. It's just speculation but it's under this umbrella of an absolute rational empirical house which is building up on itself. It's growing but it's actually unstable underneath, like these big towers and buildings that are built on stilts." (Conrad Shawcross)

The interests of Conrad Shawcross are mainly focussed on scientific and philosophical questions in areas such as mathematics and epistemology. These disciplines combine in his artistic work to create pictures which, like the experimental mathematical models in a museum, make complicated connections or fundamental theoretical concepts visible so that people can experience them, but without explicitly naming them. The frequent use of wood and the sheer size of the kinetic sculptures by Conrad Shawcross also create an anachronistic effect: like gigantic machines from the early days of industrialisation they jolt and vibrate, go round and round and produce things with a direct usefulness which seems completely intangible - rather like basic scientific research.
The Nervous Systems, an installation designed specifically for the Grand Hall of the Mudam, is similar to a number of other machines created since 2003 by Shawcross, an enthusiastic sailor, which produce rope, but then usually separate the rope into its individual strands again. The impressive towering form of this metaphorical machine is reminiscent of both the large-scale technological installations of modern nuclear physics and the Spinning Jenny, the first automatic spinning machine of the industrial age. Its hexagonal structure, the double helix of the spiral staircase and the threads which converge like rays on a single point create visual associations with the latest insights and theories of science, from the analysis of the genetic sequence to string theory in hypothetical physics. The slowness of the movements also clearly articulates the theme of time, which is present in both of its possible basic forms, i.e. in the cyclical repetition of the 162 bobbins and the linear progression of the rope which is produced.
Shawcross's The Nervous Systems thus provides an artistic statement on subjects which are on the boundary between physics and metaphysics. His mysterious machine remains enigmatic, paradoxical and fascinating.

Curators: Marie-Noëlle Farcy, Clément Minighetti
With the support of: Kurt Salmon