Offer Waterman
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Notable Sales
  • News
  • Publications
  • About
  • Contact
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

Alison Wilding: Acanthus, asymmetrically

Past exhibition
26 May - 7 July 2017
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Alison Wilding, Floodlight, 2001
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Alison Wilding, Floodlight, 2001
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Alison Wilding, Floodlight, 2001
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Alison Wilding, Floodlight, 2001

Alison Wilding b. 1948

Floodlight, 2001
Cast acrylic
4 3/8 x 8 5/8 x 6 3/4 inches
11 x 22 x 17 cm
AW 209
number 9/12 from an edition of 12, plus 3 artist's proofs

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) The Artist Alison Wilding Bw
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) The Artist Alison Wilding Bw
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) The Artist Alison Wilding Bw
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) The Artist Alison Wilding Bw
‘Small Sculpture is not made to be placed pn pedestals. Both by convention and nature it seems set to be unobtrusive, refusing to command the space that it is in....
Read more
‘Small Sculpture is not made to be placed pn pedestals. Both by convention and nature it seems set to be unobtrusive, refusing to command the space that it is in. This seems obvious enough and yet it is not quite that straightforward. An object like Floodlight might be small in scale; it might sit on a sill rather than hold centre-stage. It is not in spite of but because it does not demand to be looked at that it becomes more rather than less compelling. What looks like yellow resin or even amber is in fact cast acrylic, a translucent material that holds the light, entrapping a luminous, oval flacked with tiny bits of carbon. Like Solenoid (2015) another sculpture about the same size, wound around with string, it is hard to say what they are. They seem almost like prosthetic extensions of the han’s imaginary, projecting a sense of presence that far exceeds their actual size. The object doesn’t have to be obviously ‘hand-made’ in order for it to have this effect. Its singular intrusiveness, finally, is all the more palpable because it is unexpected.

This work was included in a group exhibition at Rhodes and Mann in 2003, in a review of the exhibition published in Frieze magazine, Morgan Falconer described the work as ‘powerfully evocative… a small, black, oval object enclosing a window of syrupy, luminescent yellow, it was less a stadium light than a lighthouse beam….throwing a sense of seclusion, light and shadow over aseries of drawings by Ana Hatherly’

The classical names for amber, Latin electrum and Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron), are connected to a term ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) meaning "beaming Sun". According to myth, when Phaëton son of Helios (the Sun) was killed, his mourning sisters became poplar trees, and their tears turned to electron/amber. Wilding’s most recent print is called Phaeton (2016) and also relates to the myth of Phaeton who rode his sun chariot too close to the sun and then scorched the earth causing the death of many people. This image of the chariot is also present in the recent sculpture Re-re-re-tread (also 2016).

An edition of Floodlight is in the British Council Collection.

This work was manufactured by Blanson Acrylic Engineers.
Close full details

Provenance

The Artist

Exhibitions

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, 2002

London, Rhodes and Mann, Nightwood, group exhibition with Ansuya Blom, Kate Davis, Ana Hatherly and Mandy Ure, 2003

Manningtree, Essex, North House Gallery, Alison Wilding, 2006

London, RBS Galleries, The Thought of Stuff, group exhibition

Madrid, Benveniste Contemporary, Chamberworks, November 2010 - January 2011, group exhibition
Lincoln, Greyfriars, Crating, 2012, group exhibition

London, Offer Waterman in collaboration with Karsten Schubert, Alison Wilding: Acanthus, asymmetrically, 26 May - 7 July 2017, illus colour

Manchester, The Whitworth, Alison Wilding, 16 February - 12 August 2018

Bexhill, De La Warr Pavilion, Alison Wilding: Right Here and Out There, 23 June - 16 September 2018

Literature

Jo Applin and Briony Fer, Alison Wilding, Lund Humphries in association with Ridinghouse, 2018, p165, illus colour p163

Previous
|
Next
21 
of  40
Back to exhibitions

info@waterman.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7042 3233

Join our mailing list

Join the mailing list
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Modern Slavery Statement
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Offer Waterman
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Interests *

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.