On the Cover:
Ignacio Unrrein, Intento dibujar y re dibujar una línea (ReLine Attempt), 2018. Indelible ink on skin (tattoo), 15 x 10 cm. Photo: Lucas Sarmiento.
Editor’s Letter:
Given the natural relationship between sculpture and architecture, it is perhaps unsurprising that over the years we have covered a number of artist/architects (and vice versa). That practice continues here with the Indian architect-turned-artist Martand Khosla and the Argentinian artist and architect Ignacio Unrrein. However, what unites all of those included in this issue is a particular concern with materials. Unrrein, who creates sculptures from a number of unlikely things and processes, including seed bombs, says, “I don’t choose any specific material. I’m interested in the state where materials respond to the research I’m carrying out or vice versa. For example, I recently had to find a way to make soil harder.” By contrast, the British sculptor Frances Richardson submits her choices to what amounts to a precept: “Having made it almost a rule that I was going to work with materials that had no romance, no memory, no history—like MDF or Concrete Canvas or plywood—there was an integrity in the material from one surface to the other.” Tracy Linder yokes the imagery of the Western United States to Minimalism, producing, for example, a series of horse heads from animal collagen, artificial sinew, and resin. And, as writer Robert Preece points out, Scottish artist Nathan Coley, in a practice that ranges across sculpture, video, and illuminated text constructions, often focuses “on how the built environment and public space are invested, and reinvested, with meaning.”
As we close out our third issue put together during the Covid-19 pandemic, public spaces—including those where artworks are shown—have been reinvested with utterly changed meanings. We will continue to explore the shifting space and significance of dimensional art in these unprecedented times, hoping to provide a refuge for contemplating them. —Daniel Kunitz