Toby Ziegler I The Alienation of Objects
Toby Ziegler’s sculptural installation consists of new sculptures and readymades inspired by found images of historical art objects; an Iberian stone head stolen from the Louvre for Pablo Picasso; a neo-classical sculpture of a panther, a pair of Staffordshire pottery dogs; a Hellenic sculpture of a hermaphrodite couple and a classical Venus. All of these objects have been damaged or lost definition through the passage of time.
Ziegler’s process further distorts and amends their form. He begins with low resolution photographs found in books and on the internet. These images too have lost or gained information and narratives over the years. He then uses 3D software to re-model the objects in three dimensions, and working from these digital projections, fabricates them in oxidised aluminium polygons riveted together to form a skin.
Ziegler is interested in the ways in which we receive and interpret information, for example; the transmission of images or artefacts across historical periods or different media. His works play up the losses and alterations that are incurred when an artefact is communicated across these breaches.
Image credit: Toby Ziegler, The Alienation of Objects, 2010. Installation view at The New Art Gallery Photo Hannah Anderson. Courtesy Zabludowicz Collection, Simon Lee Gallery, London and Max Hetzler, Berlin.
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