Off-site Project
Perrott’s Folly, Waterworks Road, Edgbaston,
Birmingham
Sofia Hultén is preoccupied with the ‘extended
object’ – the transformative potential of matter and the possible
actions that occur through it. She imagines the way things could be, or
might have been, and the processes involved, often pushing them to
their physical limits until broken down. At the same time she is
concerned with the possibility of reversing events, ‘restoring’ objects
by reconfiguring their materials into new versions of themselves. In
going against the grain – of time, or material – Hultén performs subtle
acts of resistance and subversion.
The imaginative realms
of science fiction and popular science often provide Hultén with
inspiration for her work. Time loops, chain reactions, genealogy
and
notions of parallel worlds all feature, though the artist continually
plays off the natural laws of the world as we know it. A recent work
Mutual Annihilation (2008) involved the restoration of a battered old
chest to its original state and back again, with video tracing the
various stages of its metamorphosis. For Perrott’s Folly Hultén creates
a site-specifc installation, again dealing with restoration and
reconstruction, focusing on details of this remarkable 18th century
building, one of Birmingham’s most historic landmarks.
A
colour publication accompanies the project, co-published with
Künstlerhaus Bremen and available from Ikon Shop priced £12, exhibition
price £10.
Entry
to Perrott’s Folly is free and the Folly is open Thursday – Sunday,
1–5pm. Perrott’s Folly is located 15 minutes walk from Ikon and 5
minutes from Hagley Road. Please note the Folly is only accessible via
a steep spiral staircase.
Map to Perrott's Folly (PDF 81kb)
www.perrottsfolly.co.uk