Raphaël Zarka: Geometry Improved

About

Paris-based artist Raphaël Zarka is a collector of sculptural forms. His ongoing series, Les Formes du Repos (Forms of Rest), consists of photographs of remnants of unrealised constructions that litter the landscape: a stretch of unfinished monorail, a concrete breakwater, a lone pylon. The series Riding Modern Art, 2007, extends his investigations further, combining found forms of public sculpture with ‘found images' from the sub-culture vernacular of the urban skateboarder. For his exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, Zarka presents a new installation comprising Les Formes du Repos, and recent sculptures Les Billes de Sharp (Sharp's Beams), solid oak forms incised with geometric patterns described by the English astronomer Abraham Sharp. Zarka's recent video Topographie Anecdotée du Skateboard, a high-octane chronicle of the history of skateboarding and its outsider status in the use of public space, will be screened during the course of the exhibition. The sixth in our Encounters series, this is Zarka's first exhibition in the UK. Encounters is a programme of exhibitions in the Lower Gallery, displays at our partner schools and in the community, and special projects and events. Lower Gallery