Alexander Duncan
All images by and courtesy of the artist.
Cove (anthropocene), 2007-2012, polyurethane, polystyrene.
Cove explores the complex relationship between man-made materials that inhabit the contemporary world. Polyurethane foam is an in-between material – of housing insulation, boat floatation and life buoys. An aesthetic that is born purely out of practicality, man-made and water worn, these repugnant ‘pebbles’ have been sought from rocky coves, inlets and slips, themselves often forgotten in-between spaces of the landscape. The smooth simulacra of the form carries the energy and traces of a violent process: erosion on a fast-forward button.
Hold On, 2010-2013, Digital Photographs.
Our questioning of the existence of the Anthropocene often seems an inherently egotistical one, whereas the simple weight change of an object we think we know, offers an example of negative evidence, of remembering and forgetting what is in our immediate vicinity. The material seems to weave a line between science and art, of pseudomorphs and simulations.
Pseudo, 2009, 2012, Digital Photographs.
I have been seeking these objects for many years, being confused by the first one on a trip to Lancashire, bobbing in an eddy on the river Ribble. On returning to South Wales I walked through coastal spaces with my vision seemingly changed. Visits to Ireland, Morocco, Spain, the Hebrides, and even along the Thames have shown this materials ubiquity. I now have a collection of over 10,000 pieces that have been exhibited in art galleries across the UK, where the work has prompted a mixture of revulsion and intrigue. I am currently based in London, where I am studying for an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art.
Cove, 2007-2011.
Cove (detail).
“Alex has always been interested in where and how we place ourselves in the world, the position of the body in relationship to other objects and situations, which can only be sensed through the actual experience of the materiality of objects”.
Tim Davies, Artist
Alexander Duncan was born in Swansea in 1985. He studied at Swansea College of Art (UTSWD) and in 2015 completed an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London. Alexander works primarily with sculpture, sought objects, video and photography, exhibiting recently in the London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery; Adjacent Realities at the Austrian Culture Forum, London and Mediterranea 17, La Fabricca del Vapore, Milan. He was the recipient of the 2015 Wakelin Award, organized by the Glynn Vivian Art gallery in Swansea and was awarded a Royal British Society of Sculptors bursary.