8 Days, 17 Hours, 46 Minutes and 21 Seconds

About

Robert Currie presents an intrinsically ethical practice when he makes his large videotape installations. For this work, specially commissioned by VINEspace, exploratory pencil sketches led to a simple idea — to work on the two parallel walls of the gallery. The initial process was clear and equitable, but in contrast to the ultimate complexity with which we are confronted. The two sides of the gallery extend inwards towards the centre of the room. Architecturally, it is unlike Currie's previous installations; more Gaudi than Gropius, less pre-determined, more willful. The videotape, with its slender lines and reflective surface works accumulatively to grow out from the wall, crystal-like, with an organically geometric sensibility. The building up of lines, the hatching and shading of planes and the definition of shape are familiar methods for articulating form with pencil on paper. On the platform of installation, and of course, in three dimensions, this work concerns itself not with the articulation of form but the validity of nothingness; through woven uniformity and within interstices, voids materialize with cogent restraint. Physiological, psychological and philosophical modes of perception are a pre-occupation, and visually, an awareness of what is not there, is brought about because of what is; a perception of nothingness as a result of ‘somethingness'. Robert Currie lives and works in London. He graduated with a BA from Manchester Metropolitan University and completed an MA at the Royal College of Art in 2000. He was selected by Sarah Kent, Gavin Turk and Jeremy Millar for ‘New Contemporaries 2000'. Group shows include; ‘Moving Parts' Studio Voltaire, ‘Remote Control' Angel Row Nottingham, ‘The Liminal Phase', Holloway, ‘42' at The Three Colts Gallery and ‘Driven' at Fieldgate. In 2006 he completed a year-long residency at the Florence Trust.