The object sculpture

Abstract

Wilson co-curated an international survey exhibition of 30 sculptures past and present, each work by a different artist. Works were installed throughout the Henry Moore Institute, from the front steps to the library, the final work being the catalogue, designed as a piece of work by artist Pae White. An exhibition arising out of a unique set of curatorial conditions – the entire budget and apparatuses of the museum were handed over to three artists seen, through their exhibited work, to have manifested a particular interest in the condition of sculpture today. Together, they were set the task of answering the question ‘What is Sculpture?’ Over the following 18 months, through extensive meetings and correspondences, an exhibition was made which took the full extent of the Institute as its frame, from the library to the front steps. The artists employed an independent researcher to gather information surrounding each chosen work, and offered all this archival material to the sculptor Pae White who was asked to produce a catalogue as the final artwork for exhibition. The collection of works and texts on display articulated the shared international and historical context in which the artists agreed they now work. But the exhibition also announced its own particular modus operandi – each discrete artwork was carefully installed according to its own needs, as well as being there as representative of its class of sculpture. Visitors were invited to encounter discrete works in the first instance, divorced from their contexts, and this prioritising of direct experience was reflected in the invitation cards, where the list of works took precedence over the list of artists. The catalogue, as well as being an artwork in its own right, provided factual material surrounding each exhibited piece with a minimum of interpretation, offering the first step in helping visitors piece together a more contextual reading. Wilson took full equal part in the curatorial process up to final installation of the works. The exhibition was widely reviewed and has an international reputation - it helped set the terms for discussing contemporary sculptural practice