Folly (2006). 2.3m x 1.7m x 1.9m black painted mdf.
Folly employs forms that reference both Modernist architecture, and minimalist artists such as Robert Morris and Donald Judd. It reminds me also of the architecture of the gun emplacements and blockhouses along the Atlantic wall, and the pill-boxes to be found in the UK.
Folly acts as a puzzle that proliferates at each new showing, gradually filling the space it inhabits. The ground plan for the work is taken from a Persian pattern extruded through a stacking system that employs just three elements - a square, a diamond, and a triangle. Folly can be walked through and sat upon, and visitors are encouraged to re-arrange the configuration. I have likened it to an architectural folly in its title.
Please see 'A Handful of Dust' - article by JG Ballard which talks about themes shared with this work.
2 scale models of Folly - 1:200 and 1:100 - showing aerial view of extruded pattern.
Folly 2006 - 3 Colts Gallery - Bethnal Green.
Composite picture with Folly sited in woods.
