RICHARD DEACON ///I REMEMBER II // night fishing TEFAF 2015

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“Some years ago, in October 1994, I was shopping in Sainsbury’s and looking at the cheese on the cheese counter. As I looked at the Swiss cheese — the one with the holes — the thought oc-curred to me, “I wonder what it would be like if the holes were so big that there was very litt-le cheese?” This talk is really about three things — why such a thought popped into my head, why I thought it was a good idea, and how I pursued it. I’ve tried to trace the background to the idea and its consequences, both in relationship to things I’ve made and to things I’ve seen.”

Deacon has consistently referred to himself as a fabricator, a term he uses to distin-guish his working methods from tho-se of the carver or modeller. As he explains: I always used to give lectures about my work un-der the heading fabrication‘ and 1 quite like the idea that a fabrication can be something made up rather than truth. When you fabricate something it has a straightforward sense of making but it also has a sense of invention or make believe. I always like that dual play. All the work I make is fundamentally made. It‘s not cast or modelled or carved. Almost all of it is built, so fabricator is a very straightforward way of describing that without specifying a technique. Deacon‘s approach is sensitive to the physica-lity of the material in hand, which is usually qui-te ordinary stuff. It is chosen as one might choose words to make a sentence or a line of poetry, which involves a fitting purposefulness that also factors in colour as an important consideration. But his primary interest is the plasticity of material, which he manipulates and constructs from, exploring its physical qualities and the potential forms that can be achieved with it. Irrespective of the medi-um — be it steel, wood, rubber, cloth or clay — it is dynamically reinterpreted into a form that evolves through the act of fabrication: ”Most of the proce-

dures I adopt are ways of putting structure into the material and that too is an expressive element as is the act of work that completes the task. Sculpture allows these elements of material, structure, form and work to unite but it doesn‘t teil you what to do.” Bending, shaping, twisting and joining are just some of the structural manipulations possible, and then there are treatments of surface and modes of fixing, too. The sculptures emerge from the repe-titions and combinations of these methods, and there is a surprising diversity that results when, as Deacon puts it, he is able “to allow the materi-al itself to be meaningful”. Rather than imposing an image onto the work, it is brought into being by worldly processes that identify creativity as an or-dinary activity to be performed an everyday mat-ter, rather than a special talent projected onto rare-fied substances. Deacon identifies his activity with human labour and industry, and his sculpture with the realm of things. The visibility of rivets and screws in a work such as If the Shoe Fits 1981, or the glue in Keeping the Faith 1992, makes clear how they have been made; and so, while ul-timately aesthetic objects — that is, artworks — they seem closely related to functional products.

(from: Richard Deacon, Tate Publishing, 2014, p.65)

/// about THE ARTIST///

/// the artist on HIS IDEA///

I Remember I and I Remember II (foreground) installed at CAC Malagá in 2013Photo: José Luis Gutiérrez

/// I REMEMBER 2012-2013///

I Remember II, 2012Wood, stainless steel

121 x 400 x 137 cm | 47 2/3 x 157 1/2 x 54 inPhoto: José Luis Gutiérrez

Night Fishing, a new exhibition that complements tefaf Modern this year by offering works by living artists that have previously not been shown at the fair, intends to make a contribution to sculpture undergoing a current and on-going redefinition. For this show, Richard Deacon who according to the curator and many others “has made a significant contribution to our perception of sculp-ture and has shown a profound and eloquent interest in the history of sculpture, notably the history of Medieval sculpture in Britain,” was asked to partake with his sculp-ture, I Remember II (2012). This work of wood and stainless steel is part of a small group of three sculptures titled I Remember (2012-13) that stem from a few forerunners about which Deacon says: “The starting point is my fascination with the com-plexity of the linear forms that result from unpacking a twisted bundle of four, square section, pieces of wood.

Re-combined, in differing configurations, an astonishing and rich associative and spatial complexity emerges. Ec-static (2007) and Orinoco (2008) are both concer-ned with this and both sculptures have problems at their ends – a problem which is addressed by making it disap-pear since they are each either long or tall. Still Water – Talking the Talk does things differently. I‘ve mul-tiplied the number of bundles used (up to 13) and made the geometry of the relation of their square cut ends – their absence or presence in a complex interweave of possible positions. The result is something not unlike a piece of Is-lamic patterning — and the placing of particular tiles is of-ten a question of absence or presence in an arena of possi-bilities — as engrossing, and, ultimately, unfathomable as the slither and slide that occurs between the spiral twists. It‘s like ripple and eddy, all contained within a rectangular block.”

/// about the origins of I REMEMBER ///

Installation of the group I Remember at Böhm Chapel in Cologne, 2014Photo: Werner Hannappel

Still Water, 2009Wood, stainless steel

120 x 205 x 90 cm | 47.24 x 80.71 x 35.43 inPrivate collection

Installation view Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, 2009Photo: Mathias Schormann

(left)Ecstatic, 2007

Steamed oak and stainless steel 617 x 33 x 31 cm | 242.91 x 12.99 x 12.2 in

Installation view Venice Biennale, 2007Photo: Werner Hannappel

(top)Orinoco, 2007

Wood, stainless steel137 x 689 x 88 cm

David Roberts Art FoundationInstallation view Roche Court, Wiltshire, 2010

Photo: Ken Adlard

Richard Deacon is widely regarded as one of the leading British sculptors, best known for his lyrical open forms and interest in materials and their ma-nipulations. For more than four decades Deacon has employed materials ranging from laminated wood and corbonate to leather, cloth and ceramic. He works on both domestic and large scales, com-bining organic forms with elements of enginee-ring. His continuously changing methods of cons-truction are a result of developments in sculptural approach, particularly in the interactions between surface, skin and structure, and to the relationship between mass and volume. Deacon places as much emphasis on language as he does materiality, re-

flecting a deep-rooted interest that stems from his reading of poetic, philosophical and other texts.Richard Deacon was born in 1949. He has exhi-bited widely internationally over the past forty years. Most recently in 2014, a large scale sur-vey was exhibited at Tate Britain. This exhibiti-on was preceded by a major retrospective, The Missing Part, that took place at Musée d’Art mo-derne et contemporain de la Ville de Strasbourg & Musée des Arts decoratifs de Strasbourg and Sprengel Museum in Hannover in 2010-11. Deacon teaches at the Kunstakademie in Düssel-dorf. Presently, he is preparing a major solo show at Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland.

This online newspaper is published on the occasi-on of Galerie Thomas Schulte‘s participation with Richard Deacon and his sculpture I Remember II at Night Fishing at tefaf 2015, March 13 to 22.

The photos appear courtesy of the artist and Gale-rie Thomas Schulte

Photos: Ken Adlard, José Luis Gutiérrez, Werner Hannappel, Mathias Schormann © 2015, the artist, the photograhers, Galerie Tho-mas Schulte

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/// the artist on MAKING AND MATERIALS ///

“I am a fabricator, not a carver or a modeler. In this sense manufacturing or building skills are of most interest to me. Resonance is a central preoccupation. Some issues are relatively simple. I work with materials in the most straightforward way. I do not make plans. The activity is repetitious. There is no sense in making things complicated. I begin by shaping stuff, most recently into circles or cones, and continue by developing the form. I may have something in mind or I may not There are often radical changes. The unexpected happens. I am never sure whether I finish the thing I am making or whether it finishes with me.”