Zygotes and Confessions: MOSTYN

 

14 November 2020-18 April 2021 

 

In his first major institutional exhibition, Nick Hornby takes on queer identity and screen-based intimacy with a series of radical photo-sculptural forms.   

 

The exhibition is curated by MOSTYN Director, Alfredo Cramerotti.   
A catalogue edited by Matt Price, is co-published by MOSTYN and Anomie. 

  •  

  • "As the five-century arc of its title would suggest, Nick Hornby’s exhibition at Churner and Churner, ‘Sculpture, 1504–2013,’ made no bones about its ambition, even by means of a few, discreet works.[...]This recent body of work seems more predominantly concerned with a rigorous approach to subtractive form, and a play between corporeal figuration and geometric abstraction. The results so far have been outstanding."  

    – Ara H. Merjian, Frieze Magazine issue 162, April 2014.

  • The introduction of gender in these works mirrors Hornby's use of form-the nucleus of life referenced in the title, the...
    The introduction of gender in these works mirrors Hornby's use of form-the nucleus of life referenced in the title, the zygote, is something which has not yet taken on a distinct sexual identity. With that new subject comes a personal intimacy which Hornby's work has previously resisted: as 'confessions' in the exhibition title reveals, these forms carry allusions to autobiography.  In turn this links back to screens and our complicated relationship with them: 'The transition from formal to very personal comes quickly, at the click of a button', Hornby says of cyber interactions, 'suddenly, the boundaries shift completely'.  This flickering between and blurring of identities is exactly what Hornby expresses through his sculpture, in forms that ebb and flow as we watch, bringing another dimension to the genre of portraiture.
  • The screen offers a carefully manipulated version of the world around us but it is also something controlled by touch....

     

    The screen offers a carefully manipulated version of the world around us but it is also something controlled by touch. These sculptures, similarly, are set apart from the artist’s hand through a sequence of digital and industrial processes, but retain touch through their final, dipping process. There, the sculpture is submerged in a tank of colour-streaked, liquefied image; then lifted out, resplendent in its new skin. As Hornby says, ‘I’ve taken these images from my liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and literally dipped sculptures through them, using an industrial hydrographic method to create an analogue version of Photoshop’. 

     

  •
  • For all the logic of the connections between the form of his sculptures and their new subject, Hornby’s work is also playfully evasive. This amplifies their fluidity: ideas of autobiography are complicated by collaboration, and nine of these new sculptures were made with the photographer Louie Banks, celebrated for his fashion shoots with transgender models and drag queens. From a distance, the high gloss finish of his creations—morphing portrait busts and ‘mantlepiece dogs’—have a compelling tactility. Close-up, explicit details provide an unexpected twist. These are shimmering, chameleon-like hybrids, shifting from sculpture to photograph and back again, all the while seductive and elusive. 

     

  •  

     

     

     

     

  • About MOSTYN, Wales UK

    Situated in the coastal town of Llandudno, MOSTYN is Wales’ foremost visual arts centre, serving as a platform for contemporary artistic practice and audience engagement. MOSTYN presents outstanding and critically engaged international contemporary art that engages, inspires and encourages people to form and share new perspectives on the world through its programmes.

     

    MOSTYN, 12 Vaughan Street, Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 1AB

    +44(0)1492 879201 

    www.mostyn.org

    Instagram @mostyngallery #mostyngallery

     

    Open Tuesday – Sunday 

    11.00am - 4.00pm

    ADMISSION FREE

     

     

    For further information and press images, please contact Lin Cummins, Audience Relations Manager, MOSTYN lin@mostyn.org / 01492 879201