MICHAEL DEAN – GOVERNMENT
2012-04-16Michael Dean’s sculptures are either the perfect size to be carried or quote their surrounding architecture where they are then to be found lurking, propped against gallery walls. Made from cast concrete, the surfaces are veined and ridged, offering invitations to be touched. Tactility is an essential sculptural quality for Dean – he wishes us to first ‘touch with the eyes, and then allow ourselves to touch with the hand’.
Government quotes from and transforms the Institute’s galleries. The concrete floor has been covered with a thick, wool, wall-to-wall carpet, becoming something to touch, with the new surface changing the visual and sonic experience of the spaces. Instead of standing, the Institute’s Information Assistants sit on the floor. The door handles at the entrance to the galleries have been recast as four forearm-sized sculptures, titled ‘Yes (working title)’ and ‘No (working title)’. These flat, grey, concrete bodies leave themselves no choice but to touched, their patina changing as the raw, unsealed surfaces pick up the traces of each person’s hand.
Exhibition runs through to June 17th, 2012
Henry Moore Institute
74 The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AH
