Returning to an Abandoned Plant 2007

Editor: We're looking at Liam Gillick's 2007 piece, *Returning to an Abandoned Plant*. It’s a mixed media sculpture, with what looks like modular, geometric panels. I'm struck by how playful the colors are against this sort of rigid, almost industrial structure. What's your take? Curator: It feels like a hopeful ruin, doesn't it? The title points to a return, a second look. Gillick often plays with the idea of space – not just physical space, but also the spaces within systems, like the workplace. This piece, with its constructivist vibe, kind of suggests a utopian project gone… well, not quite wrong, but certainly transformed. Imagine it in a factory, or an office. The colors become coded messages, perhaps. What do you think the transparency does? Editor: It’s interesting you mention the idea of coded messages, that shifts how I see it! The transparency... maybe it's about revealing the layers of these systems, making visible what’s usually hidden? Curator: Exactly! Or maybe it’s about how these systems are always shifting, never quite solid. Like looking through a kaleidoscope. It almost questions the promises of modernism. Gillick seems to be asking: can we ever truly design a perfect space? Editor: So, the "abandoned plant" in the title isn't necessarily a negative thing. More like a moment for re-evaluation, maybe even re-imagining the space for something new? Curator: Precisely. It is in this continuous revisiting and adaptation where the creative act thrives, allowing the system to morph and generate fresh interpretations, akin to a seed of potential blooming into myriad possibilities. Perhaps its very failings that are its strengths! Editor: That's given me a whole new way of seeing modular art; the possibilities seem endless. Curator: Art's purpose is always about possibility and questioning the potential. Seeing familiar objects in new spaces to prompt the "what if?" It expands our idea of our surrounding parameters.