Presented
by The Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects in partnership with
Tate Modern
Tate Modern North Landscape
19 May – 26 October 2003
Admission free. Open every day 10.00–18.00 Friday and Saturday until
22.00.
Two newly
commissioned inflatable sculptures by American artist Paul McCarthy form
the first major installation on Tate Modern’s North Landscape. McCarthy
is considered one of the most influential and groundbreaking artists of
today. Through the works Blockhead and Daddies Bighead McCarthy continues
his career-long exploration of American popular culture and stereotypes.
Paul McCarthy
(born 1945) uses the language and imagery of the all-pervasive American
consumer culture he grew up with, in work that distorts and mutates the
familiar into the disturbing and carnivalesque. McCarthy first became
known in the 1970s for his visceral performances and film works but during
the 1990s extended his practice into stand alone sculptural figures, installations
and most recently a series of large inflatable sculptures. His recent
retrospective was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
in 2000, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Villa Arson,
Nice, France and Tate Liverpool in 2001.
Blockhead
is loosely based on the character of Pinocchio, but as in much of McCarthy’s
work, this popular children’s character is mutated, on this occasion
with funfair spectacle. There is an opening at the base of the figure
leading into a cavernous hallway where visitors will be able to purchase
specially made candy. The enormous scale of the figure (the sculpture
is some thirty five metres high) is designed to physically overpower the
viewer, an experience the artist has likened to standing at the bottom
of a cliff, describing the inflatable as ‘an abstract that rises
up and over your head’. However, this extraordinary physical presence
will be seemingly negated by the black surface which McCarthy describes
as creating ‘a black object’ which becomes ‘a hole in
the landscape’. Among McCarthy’s earliest works was a series
of black paintings made in 1967-68 and he has quoted several of the leading
artists from this period, such as American sculptor Tony Smith, in reference
to the starkness of Blockhead’s black form.
Shown alongside Blockhead is Daddies Bighead, a second newly commissioned
inflatable sculpture that stands approximately half the height of Blockhead
at sixteen metres tall. Daddies Bighead is based on a ketchup bottle.
Ketchup has been a pivotal motif through all of McCarthy’s work.
He has frequently used ketchup in his performances and installations,
along with other grocery stables of domestic life such as mayonnaise and
chocolate, as stand-ins for bodily fluids.
For further
information please contact Nadine Thompson or Sioban Ketelaar,
Tate Press Office,
Call 020 7887 8731/01 or
Or Mary Minshull, The Henry Moore Foundation, Call 0113 2467467
E-mail press@henry-moore-fdn.co.uk
or pressoffice@tate.org.uk
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