Steven Claydon
The Author of Mishap (Them), 2005
Copper powder in resin and peacock feather
Sculpture: 36 x 21.5 x 23.5 cm Plinth: 125 x 30 x 30 cm
Steven Claydon
Lightbox Group, 2007
Dimensions variable
Steven Claydon
The Thingliness of Things 1 (Potatoes in the Cellar), 2007
Acrylic, oil, steel, hessian, paper and wood, four parts mounted on plinth
157 x 300 x 150 cm
The Thingliness of Things I (Potatoes In The Cellar) takes its inspiration from Heidegger’s writings on art. One of Heidegger’s philosophical problems was what exactly is it that gives art its special value? At what point does art become art and not just an ordinary object? Heidegger explored this question via a comparison between a stored work of art and potatoes kept in a cellar. Claydon’s own position in relation to this is “I see it as a more complex situation with subtle variations between the realms of material baseness and balanced subjectivity.” In The Thingliness of Things I (Potatoes In The Cellar) Claydon offers an assemblage incorporating domestic and institutional forms that reference both the everyday and the power systems that assign cultural worth.
Steven Claydon
Omar (Emergent), 2008
Ceramic, powder-coated steel, carpet, plywood, starched hessian, found objects, aluminium
189 x 125 x 125 cms