"Continuum" (01:31)
The Victoria Miro Gallery in London exhibits the work. Conrad Shawcross examines scientific and philosophic ideas in his sculpture.
"Space Trumpet" (04:01)
Unilever commissions the artist to create a piece. The installation will rotate in a new direction at midnight. See footage of the Shawcross assembling the installation.
"No Such Thing as One" (05:21)
Victoria Miro Gallery hosts an exhibition. Shawcross discusses his inspiration behind the show. Pieces examined include "The Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary," "Paradigm (Ode to the Difference Engine)," and "Space Grid."
"Binary Star" (03:25)
Shawcross discusses his inspiration behind the piece of work. The light bulbs collide when oak arms get out of sync. "Fifth 3 2" examines mathematical purity.
"IBLS Soulcatcher" (02:59)
Shawcross appeals to the public when a rare car disappears. The Investigation Bureau into the Location of the Soul is an organization determined to find where the soul exists in one's person.
Completing Unilever Commission (08:49)
The installation is labor-intensive. See footage of craftsmen assembling and installing "Space Trumpet." Shawcross troubleshoots the clearance between the platform and the building.
Credits: Conrad Shawcross (00:31)
Credits: Conrad Shawcross
Conrad Shawcross
Regularly using subjects which lie on the border of science and philosophy, Conrad Shawcross's structural and often mechanical sculptures question empirical, ontological and philosophical systems ubiquitous within our lives. While at first appearing rational and functional, his complex mechanized systems, in the end, deny all rational function and so the viewer is forced down philosophical and metaphysical avenues to deduce a 'rasion d'etre'. From early works such as The Nervous System, 2002 – a monumental spinning machine that endlessly weaves a length of colored rope into the form of a double helix, the shape of DNA – to his recent giant spiral work Continuum, 2004, the artist has attempted to visualize, among other things, the incomprehensible of human concerns, time.