Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a mercurial response to Gallery M within CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea and measures 10 x 2.8 x 2.8m. This work was selected for development in 2023 through a peer review open competition for artists. The resulting work tests sculptural notions of expansion and compression in relation to architecture. A deliberately tight fit means viewers had to push past the inflatable in places to get around it and enter the rectangular space of its inflation. This inflatable investigated pressure and constriction, by giving the appearance of pushing against the gallery walls.

The organically globular sculpture infers an elongated droplet of mercury. On first sight the sculpture appears visually fixed, but in its experiencing, shifts to a state of reflective flux. It is also important that it projected out of the main gallery space into the stairwell, meaning viewers initially only saw its pointed bulbous tip as they approached from the floor below.

In using reflective fabric, the outcome gives physical form to a sculpture that delivers an aesthetic appearance that also changes depending on the appearance and clothing of the view; as their reflection moves over the sculpture in a muted and blurred form given the sheen of the ripstop fabric.