Artwork of the month May

Nina Canell, Interiors (Near Here), 2013

Nina Canell

* 1979 in Växjö, Sweden


Interiors (Near Here), 2013


Plexiglas, switch, wire, artificial fur
120.2 x 25.2 x 200 cm

The work Interiors (Near Here) consists of a rectangular Plexiglas body. Despite its transparent nature, it constitutes a physical entity by dint of its dimensions. Inside are fibres of brown artificial fur. The static electricity created by friction and separation of the dissimilar materials—the container and its contents—causes the artificial fibres to stick to the inside surfaces of the walls in the manner of a painterly gesture. As a result, the artwork has an inherent processual principle that implies an undefined, unpredictable outcome. In the bottom right corner of the body is a standard socket that traditionally serves to transmit electrical power, connecting the interior of the work with the space outside. Here, the socket can thus been seen as an allegory of energy supply—an energy generated in the system of art by the meeting, the «physical contact» of different matter.

Owing to the «simplicity» of the material, and using and transforming as it does principles of the laws of nature, Nina Canell's work conjures up vulnerable imagery pervaded by beauty: «I like the feel and the stored knowledge in it. They are things we know about. What they're good for, what they feel like, how heavy they are. There is nothing mysterious in the material themselves, and that, in turn, opens our senses to their symbolic capacities.»

Ephemeral by nature, Interiors (Near Here) interrogates the dynamic contexts of inside and outside, stability and transition, attraction and repulsion. With just a few materials, the artist poetically «materialises» the potential of a static electric force field. As such, sculpture—in the sense in which the Plexiglas body serves as a confining form and as matter determining the invisible flow of energy—can be seen here as a dynamic relationship of solid form and immaterial circularity.

Denise Rigaud

<b>Nina Canell, Interiors (Near Here), 2013</b>
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein highlights a work from the permanent collection each month throughout the year. Works from the collection of the Hilti Art Foundation are also included in this series on a regular basis.