Dimensions: object: 1720 x 370 x 420 mm
Copyright: © Rebecca Warren, courtesy Maureen Paley, London | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Rebecca Warren's "Versailles", a large sculpture held at the Tate. Its form is quite bulbous and almost grotesque. What symbols do you think Warren might be playing with here? Curator: Consider the title, "Versailles." Does it evoke opulence, decay, or perhaps both? The sculpture seems to grapple with the weight of cultural memory. The bulbous forms evoke classical busts, but distorted and almost collapsing. Editor: So, a deconstruction of historical grandeur? Curator: Precisely. What might these misshapen forms tell us about our relationship with the past and its ideals? Perhaps Warren is urging us to question idealized portrayals of power and beauty. Editor: That makes me see it differently now, it seems to be about how history is never as clean as textbooks present it. Curator: Indeed, and images are active participants in shaping that narrative.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warren-versailles-t12259
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Versailles is a two-part sculpture comprising an organic form modelled in clay standing on a tall MDF plinth. The plinth is painted pale pink. As is typical to Warren’s sculptures, the form is made of NewClay, a self-hardening clay which does not need to be fired. Warren moulded it by hand over a steel and polystyrene armature and then coloured it roughly using acrylic paints. Framed by a row of four large curls of clay resembling flowers, a rounded rosy pink breast juts from the centre of the form, its oversized, brilliantly coloured nipple pointing forwards like a nose and providing the focal point of the sculpture. The flowers are painted black, blue and yellow. Above them, a crudely modelled, four-fingered open hand, also coloured light pink, extends upwards. These identifiable elements emerge from a matrix of squeezed and pressed clay, roughly painted in green, blue and pink, constituting a base of unformed matter.
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