Anya Gallaccio

Described as 'wonderfully unreliable experiments', Anya Gallaccio's work is concerned essentially with the nature of change and the balance struck between growth and decay. One of the leading British sculptors of her generation, the artist’s practice demonstrates a remarkable ability to combine audience engagement with an intellectual rigour.

Transforming the everyday to the extraordinary, her installations make use of a wide range of commonplace materials such as chocolate, ice blocks, salt, flowers, chalk, candles and vegetables.

This publication was launched to coincide with the artist's first survey exhibition at Ikon in Spring 2003, for which she was nominated for the Turner Prize and includes comprehensive documentation of some of her most celebrated work, as well insights into her most recent sculptural projects, previously unseen in the UK.

An essay by art historian and critic Simon Watney included in the catalogue gives particular attention to individual pieces featured in the 2003 Ikon exhibition, while also providing a broader overview of Gallaccio’s past works, including exhibitions at Tate Britain in 2000 and 2002, in Basel, Switzerland from 1994-1996, and in Rome, Italy in 1994. Themes and influences are also explored by Watney, in particular, the artist’s fascination with concepts of time, cycles, fragility and mortality, and the impact of American philosopher Walt Whitman and the 1960s minimalist sculptors on her work.

In addition, this catalogue includes multiple full colour photographs of Gallaccio’s work and an abstract 'question and answer' style selection of philosophical musings related to her ideas, compiled from various historical and philosophical texts by writer Angus Cooke.