Images Moving Out Onto Space, Tate St Ives

This summer, Tate St Ives invites audiences to explore motion in art through a new, interactive exhibition. Bringing together eight international artists, with pieces spanning 50 years, Images Moving Out Onto Space draws from the iconic to the specially commissioned works of Bryan Wynter, Bridget Riley, Rivane Neuenschwander, Liliane Lijn, Barbara Hepworth, Dan Flavin, John Divola, and Nicolas Deshayes. Through the careful curation of contemporary works, the galleries at St Ives are animated by light, colour and movement.

The title and inspiration for Images Moving Out Onto Space is taken from a series of kinetic sculptures that Cornwall-based artist Bryan Wynter began to make in the 1960s. The artist’s Imoos series plays a key role in the exhibition, and encourages viewers to think about the role of abstraction in movement. In celebration of Wynter’s centenary year, the gallery also showcases a selection of the artist’s paintings alongside an archival presentation of his work in the Studio Resource Room.

Kinetic artist Liliane Lijn and Op art pioneer Bridget Riley are also in the exhibition line-up, both of whom are interested in perception, movement and the relationship of their work to the body of the viewer. Alongside a selection of Riley’s paintings, the display includes a collection of rarely seen prints from the mid-1960s, as well as Lijn’s familiar kinetic Koan sculptures. An expert in art and science, Lijn uses light and motion to focus the viewer’s attention on the power of light to describe form.

An iconic installation by American minimalist artist Dan Flavin can also be found adorning the interior of the gallery. Part of the ARTIST ROOMS collection, the piece is comprised of a series of T-shaped structures of fluorescent lights and uses seriality to animate the space. Accompanying this is Rivane Neuenschwander’s I Wish Your Wish – a large-scale participatory work that consists of thousands of multicoloured ribbons, each stamped with one of 60 wishes gathered from local residents over the last few months. Throughout the course of the exhibition, visitors are invited to take a ribbon from the installation and participate in the literal movement of the work from the gallery to the town and beyond.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Deshayes, Tate St Ives’ recent artist-in-residence, continues his interest in the tensions between soft organic bodies and industrial surfaces. Deshayes has curated an exhibition-within-an-exhibition consisting of a personal selection of bronzes from the Tate collection. This is accompanied by John Divola’s 1970s photographic series of derelict Californian beach huts installed in the curved space overlooking Porthmeor Beach. Entitled Zuma, the works observe the slow decay of these structures as they are ravaged by fire, vandalism, and the artist’s own graffiti.

Images Moving Out Onto Space, until 27 September, Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1TG.

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Credits
1. Bridget Riley, Nataraja, 1993. Copyright of Bridget Riley 2014. Courtesy of Karsten Schubert, London.