Roger Hiorns

Exhibitions

8 April - 28 May 2006

This was Hiorns’ first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery. It comprised a selection of work from the preceding five years and provided the opportunity to see the breadth and invention of his practice.

The exhibition featured a selection of Hiorns’ ‘crystallised’ car engines. Hiorns dips the engines into a solution of copper sulphate, so that blue crystals form a baroque-like embellishment on the intricate network of pipes, wires and filters, making a stark contrast to the engines’ original function as mechanical components.

Also included were a series of ceramic sculptures. Hanging from the ceiling, the sculptures contained a piping system that pumped air bubbles into a solution producing columns of white foam that tentatively climbed upwards in infinite configurations until they collapsed or disintegrated.

New work commissioned by Milton Keynes Gallery revealed the artist’s fascination with materials and their transformation. Hiorns investigated the effects of particular substances on a group of steel sculptures. They were accompanied by ‘Benign’ (2005), Hiorns’ film with a play written by the artist and performed by an actor as a monologue.

Press Release