Exhibition

Samuel Zealey - Everything Must Go

2 Jul 2015 – 13 Aug 2015

Event times

Wednesday - Friday 11am - 5pm, Saturday 11am - 5pm

Cost of entry

Free

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William Benington Gallery

London, United Kingdom

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Samuel Zealey's first solo exhibition with William Benington Gallery, "Everything Must Go".

About

William Benington Gallery is pleased to announce Everything Must Go, the latest solo exhibition by prize-winning sculptor Samuel Zealey.

Built single-handedly by an Italian immigrant, the Watts Towers in South Central Los Angeles still stands in the back yard of a former Italian tile mason’s home. For 33 years – between 1921 and 1954 – Sabato Rodia worked to create unique monuments reaching up to 100 feet high. These concrete structures, built by hand, wrapped in wire mesh and covered in mortar, tiles, ceramics and glass, were constructed of his own volition. They are described by Buckminster Fuller in his last recorded interview as "one man's initiative to show the beauty in nature and its principles through these architectural and sculptural wonders".

 The London based artist Samuel Zealey is on a similar quest; embarking on sculptures and prototypes, which suggest his own lifetime's endeavour and purpose. Zealey's work first came to prominence in 2009, when he was a finalist in BBC 2's School of Saatchi T.V. series. At the time his installations revolved around scientific ideas, which echoed Nikola Tesla's interests in electricity, magnets and sound. Today, Zealey's practice occupies a complex territory between engineering, art historical references and the societal impact of man on nature. His previous experimental machines and installations have developed to reflect concerns closer to his heart. In this latest exhibition he combines the futurist vision of Fuller, the playful resolute purposefulness of Rodia, and the magic of Tesla.

David - Chewing On The Past is a perfect example. This recent sculpture invites the audience to place their chewed gum upon the pristine surface of Michelangelo's David. In doing so, he suggests that the classical ethical ideas of ancient civilisations are being lost to a throwaway bubble-gum veneer. Ethics and aesthetics form part of axiology – the philosophical study of value – and it this work which sets the exhibition's tone, through the poignant treatment and wit to this replica of Michelangelo's renaissance masterpiece. Natures Monument (Energy is not created nor destroyed) is a similar but very different interactive work. Taking an obelisk composed of birdseed, lard and suet, when exposed to nature it will be eaten slowly by wildlife and, once digested, it will become part of the land that this monument came from.

Also presented are Zealey's familiar Think Tanks, magnetic wall-boards where the flow of his research and ideas are made evident for us to see, alongside more playful toy-like sculptures such as Totem-Top, a new work inspired by a spinning top. This aerodynamically engineered, simple yet brilliant invention is utilised by him to create Solar System Sun Dial, an elaborate spinning top sequence sustained with the aid of a customised, solar-powered gyroscope. Its engineering and complexity are impossible to dissociate with childhood memories, but its innocence contains the gravitas of Zealey's intentions. In Precarious Protrusion (the Jenga structure) he makes these clearer, with his reenactment of this familiar man-made game, presented on faux natural bedrock. Like Sabato Rodia, this monument will reach to the sky, not just for aggrandisement's sake or celebration but also, to remind us of the ephemeral ‘humanity’ we have built upon the timeless foundations of nature, and this game’s inevitable conclusion of collapse, as a reminder to be careful of our every step taken on this Earth.


Juan Bolivar, June 2015


More information and CV: www.williambeningtongallery.co.uk
RSVP: george@williambenington.co.uk

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Samuel Zealey

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