RICHARD
GRAYSON
(in collaboration with Steve Wigg) 1996/2012
Wet clay on wood - 4.6m x 4.3m x 2.7m
 Triumph (installation view at Samstag Museum, South Australia) |
Triumph was based on a 4.6 cm high paper-weight of the Arc de Triomphe bought by a friend from eBay. This was the model for the work and was enlarged 100 times and built out of wet clay.
"Triumph is a spectacular collaborative project by artists, Richard Grayson and
Steve Wigg, commissioned by the University of South Australia Art Museum
in 1996 - it was the first
occasion that the artists had worked together. Sixteen years later, the
artists are reprising Triumph in a new site specific installation at the
Samstag Museum. This four-metre high re-creation of the famed Napoleonic
monument to war's victories and its honoured dead, the Arc de Triomphe,
Paris, is built from 3.3 tonnes of wet, unfiltered terracotta clay over
a wooden armature. During the period of exhibition, the clay shrinks as
it dries and will fall from the armature. Triumph is a celebration that
drifts between an intentional monument, such as the Arc de Triomphe, and
the unintentional monument, the site of memorable events which serve a
commemorative function." Samstag
Museum read
catalogue essay
 |