MAstars 2006: Lu Clarke, MFA

MAstars 2006: Lu Clarke, MFA Lu Clarke, Column, 2006, Found ply wood, found linoleum tiles, 1400cm x (variable) 100-250 cm x 2cm. Credit: Lu Clarke

Ambrosine Allen selects Lu Clarke from the Slade School of Fine Art for MAstars


Lu Clarke's sculptures are intelligent and subtle. Made from wood, floor tiles and heavy duty fabrics, they are best described as interventions because of their minimal nature and their receptive relationship to the surrounding architecture.

Five works of various scales are strategically placed around the Slade building. Unlike some of the more audacious works that surround them, these sculptures don't instantly strike you with their presence. They inhabit corners and stairwells, bend themselves around floors and walls and do nothing to extricate themselves from the fabric of building. This is their appeal, their presence is elusive but the affect is striking.

The first sculpture I encountered was 'Corner', located just to left of an open doorway and wedged behind a number of pipe fittings. Constructed from pieces of plywood and layers of discarded linoleum, the piece isn't secured to any frame or fixing, it stands independently and works around the composition of the building. Clarke uses the word 'passive' when she describes her sculptures, and this idea fits when you begin to notice that the larger works can be walked on and touched in the same way as the architecture they inhabit. The work 'Column' holds evidence of this interaction with footprints and scuff marks adding to the detail and texture of the already imperfect surface. The works are in no way precious.

Clarke associates her 'interventions' with the process of drawing, lines follow line, surfaces touch and there is a certain amount of reverence to composition and colour. The piece 'Stairwell' which runs from the ground floor to the first floor via two banisters, manages to use composition to create a narrative between all parts of the space it inhabits. It reveals the shape and dimensions of the space, emphasising the height and width of the claustrophobic gap it occupies. Nothing is overdone; the viewer has to spend time with the sculptures to negotiate the subtle way that they occupy space. It's this lightness of touch that leaves such a lasting impression.

Selected by Ambrosine Allen
Published July, 2006


Further information

ambrosineallen.com
ucl.ac.uk/slade

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