BOOK LAUNCH - Thinking is Making: Objects in a Space

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Launch night: Thursday 5 October 2023, 6-8pm
Exhibition: 6-21 October 2023

As a form and an idea, sculpture has always wrested control from its makers. Now, not only is sculpture slippery – both within and without; vital and inert; emergent yet refusing definition – it’s also expensive to make, often requiring access to costly education, materials and space.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, 'Thinking is Making: Objects in a Space' assembles voices of leading figures of contemporary British sculpture as they examine the relationship between the object and its maker within this mediated field.

Dr. Jon Wood traces the influence of sculptures and sculptors who have defined the form in recent decades. An illustrated conversation between the award’s winners from 2013 to 2023 – Lee Holden, Rosie Edwards, Dean Kenning, Olivia Bax, Anna Reading, Frances Richardson, Beth Collar, Megan Broadmeadow, Kate Lyddon and Iain Hales – illuminates the development of diverse sculptural practices, locating sculpture in a space defined by both volumes of creativity and a dearth of access.

And finally, a roundtable discussion between judges Lisa Le Feuvre, Phyllida Barlow, Hew Locke and Mike Nelson speculates on the future of the award, now entering its third decade, as it asks: Who are sculptors today? And what will they make?

Join us as we launch this new publication, alongside an exhibition of limited edition lithographs and sculpture from the 2013 to 2023 award winners.