Dimensions: display dimensions variable
Copyright: © Roger Hiorns | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is an untitled work by Roger Hiorns. The Tate collection notes that the dimensions of the artwork display are variable. The way the objects hang in space gives the work an ethereal quality. What strikes you when you look at this piece? Curator: The formal arrangement of the piece interests me. The use of repeated, almost industrial shapes, stacked in a seemingly precarious balance, creates a visual tension. Note the contrast between the smooth, rounded forms and the rigid lines of separation. How does this interplay of forms affect your reading? Editor: It makes me think about balance and instability. Curator: Precisely. And consider the monochrome palette. The near-uniform color forces us to focus on the shapes themselves, their relationships, and the negative space they define. I find the suspension intriguing. Editor: I see what you mean. I'm noticing new layers of meaning by examining the formal components. Curator: Indeed, it allows us to move beyond the surface.
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Untitled is one of a series of six untitled, hollow ceramic vessels collectively known as Beachy Head (Tate T12457–T12462). These works are designed to be suspended from the ceiling with stainless steel wire and filled with soap detergent. The ceramic vessel that constitutes the body of Untitled has a glassy off-white surface coating and is shaped like a spinning-top. From the centre of its base runs a transparent silicon hose that is connected to an air compressor that feeds oxygen into the vessel. When the air compressor is switched on, the oxygen mixes with the soap detergent to produce frothy white foam that exudes out of the vessel’s spout. This column of foam, which maintains the cylindrical form of the inside of the vessel, grows steadily upwards until it can no longer support itself. The foam bends and flops flaccidly around the vessel before oozing on to the floor below, leaving a sticky entropic residue. The device continues to produce the foamy precipitate until the emission is entirely dispersed.
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