On the Cover:
Benjamín Ossa, Proyecto de Dualidad y Percepción (detail), 2015. Inox steel, iron, electromagnetic paint, 12V electrical system, LED RGB tape, glass, UV control filter, bolts, rubber wheels with brakes, and transformer, 168 x 78 x 54 cm. Photo: Jorge Losse.
Editor’s Letter:
This issue includes our annual Student Awards pages, highlighting young artists of exceptional promise, and I am sure you will find their work worth following. The mature artists featured here all make work at a scale and in ways generally not available to those just starting out. Famed British artist Rachel Whiteread says about her casts of the negative spaces of houses, buildings, stairs, and the like, “I think now that part of my language is to edit things before I begin,” explaining, “this comes from having originally been a very poor artist,” who couldn’t afford to work the way she does now. While Whiteread renders invisible spaces visible, the other three artists interviewed in this issue tend to create spaces, primarily in the form of installations. Olaf Holzapfel, of Germany, produces temporary structures—installations and shelters—as well as sculptural objects from wood, reeds, and straw. Whether sited indoors or out, these beguiling works always reference the land while playing on our perception of space and time. Time and space, with the addition of light, are also central for the Chilean artist Benjamín Ossa. As he puts it, “through installations and events that stimulate experiences, using light as a material and tool,” he challenges our perceptions and our relationship to space. Few readers of this magazine will need an introduction to Mike Nelson who, like Whiteread, began his career in London in the early 1990s. In an excellent interview in this issue, Nelson discusses his newer, more sculptural pieces as well as his classic installations. Of those realistic environments, he says that he now realizes, “There’s an oddness to those spaces, which can give you an experience that not many other things can. Sometimes when you get a glitch in reality it’s like a vision induced by matter and stuff, as opposed to drugs or alcohol or religious belief.” —Daniel Kunitz, Editor-in-Chief
