.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Beneath the Stride of Giants is a finely made, monumental wooden boat, replete with hand stitched sails, ornate oars, and a striking contemporary figurehead. Constructed in 2004 from a collection of second hand wooden furniture salvaged from London antique markets, Griffiths has created a magnificent, twelve metre-long vessel that can be seen as the artist's own Valhalla. A fairy-tale amalgamation of pirate galleon, Viking long boat, and fisherman's trawler, the beached vessel, incongruous within a gallery setting, is a highly theatrical evocation of mystical voyages. Using found objects and the power of his imagination, Griffiths has transformed abandoned, mundane materials into the stuff of fantasy. Beneath the Stride of Giants has been crafted with great ingenuity: mahogany veneer from the backs of Edwardian tallboys curve perfectly for the prow, a Victorian bureau makes for an ornate helm, bizarre little architectural cornices stand in for protective totems of ancient gods and monsters; the sails, made from fabric purchased at a gypsy market in Greece, were lovingly stitched together by the artist's girlfriend at the time.
Griffiths' work has always been concerned with reimagining the everyday into witty and inventive portals for adventure. He asks us to allow ourselves a moment of escapism in transforming cardboard boxes to spaceships, margarine tubs to retro computers, wooden tables into a gypsy-caravan. Allowing the histories and familiarity inherent within second-hand objects to work depth into the sculpture, is shorthand that allows the viewer to recognize something of themselves within the realms of the fantastical. It is this strategy, Griffiths has said, which can 'economically transport the viewer with a flick of its freakish tail' (B. Griffiths, quoted in J. Slyce 'Brian Griffiths: Civic Past and Futurama', The Guardian, 22nd March 2001).
A shelving unit stacked with groups of brightly glowing rectangles of colour, Brick Lane Remix 1 2003 is a beguiling interpretation of how colour is viewed within an urban environment. Flooding everyday items with a mesmerisingly bright palette of colour, David Batchelor has transformed ordinary components into a strikingly beautiful sculpture. Intended to be viewed from both front and back, we are presented with the clear monochrome forms as well as the electrical cables that snake from their rear. In making patent the source of the colour, Batchelor alerts us to the difference in way colour is perceived in the city, where it is predominantly generated by electricity, and in nature, where it is viewed almost in a whole.
Griffiths' work has always been concerned with reimagining the everyday into witty and inventive portals for adventure. He asks us to allow ourselves a moment of escapism in transforming cardboard boxes to spaceships, margarine tubs to retro computers, wooden tables into a gypsy-caravan. Allowing the histories and familiarity inherent within second-hand objects to work depth into the sculpture, is shorthand that allows the viewer to recognize something of themselves within the realms of the fantastical. It is this strategy, Griffiths has said, which can 'economically transport the viewer with a flick of its freakish tail' (B. Griffiths, quoted in J. Slyce 'Brian Griffiths: Civic Past and Futurama', The Guardian, 22nd March 2001).
A shelving unit stacked with groups of brightly glowing rectangles of colour, Brick Lane Remix 1 2003 is a beguiling interpretation of how colour is viewed within an urban environment. Flooding everyday items with a mesmerisingly bright palette of colour, David Batchelor has transformed ordinary components into a strikingly beautiful sculpture. Intended to be viewed from both front and back, we are presented with the clear monochrome forms as well as the electrical cables that snake from their rear. In making patent the source of the colour, Batchelor alerts us to the difference in way colour is perceived in the city, where it is predominantly generated by electricity, and in nature, where it is viewed almost in a whole.