Patrick Lowry Escalator, 2007
Selected by Rupert White
I first encountered Patrick Lowry’s work in New County Hall, modernist home of Cornwall County Council. As part of a series of artist-curated shows called More Cornwall, he installed ‘Escalator’ (2007) in the lobby. Of course from a distance it didn’t look like an artwork at all, just the kind of mess that builders leave when a job is only half done. Accordingly visitors, including myself, were tricked into thinking that for reasons best known to themselves, the council were building some kind of bizarre underground passageway, or, as I fancifully imagined at the time, a stairway to hell.
This strategy of cleverly inserting really quite substantial but unobtrusive sculptures into architectural environments has resulted in other fascinating works, none more so than 'Cage' (2008). Here, in an English Heritage mining site, Lowry recreated a metal cage of the kind that would have taken tin-miners below ground. He used nothing but plywood and acrylic paint, and like 'Escalator' (2007) and the later work of 'Museum' (2008), the painstakingly hand-made nature of the works making was only revealed on closer inspection.
Patrick Lowry Bunker, 2008
Patrick Lowry Museum, 2005
Rupert White is an artist and curator based in the South West.
Patrick Lowry's artist profile
Rupert White's curator profile
Rupert White's artist profile
March 2009
