Becoming Soil

2015
Deshayes, Nicolas
Nicolas Deshayes’s floor-based sculptures Becoming Soil (2015) explore industrial and anatomical infrastructure that usually remains out of sight. Closely resembling pipes laid out on a construction site ready to be placed underground, they also recall the body’s internal pipework. Deshayes works closely with industrial fabricators to make his sculptures, often employing processes or materials, such as powder-coated steel, that are designed to keep dirt or germs at bay. By staining the pristine surfaces of these sculptures with ceramic transfers of household waste and melted enamel glass, Deshayes has transformed them into what he describes as something ‘toxic or contaminated and therefore closer to something corporeal.’
  • Artwork Details: 180 x 14cm 180 x 14cm
  • Edition:
  • Material description: Vitreous enamel on steel
  • Credit line: © the artist
  • Theme:
  • Medium:
  • Accession number: ACC6/2017

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

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