The shape of things to come
Eva Rothschild’s colossal sculptures call the future of consumerism into question
Eva Rothschild’s sculptures demand interaction. Materials that appear to be fragile and ephemeral, such as polystyrene and corrugated cardboard, may in fact be cast from concrete or plaster, robust enough to run your hands over and even sit on – something the Dublin-born artist sees as pivotal to her creations. ‘The audience complete the works themselves,’ she says.
From her studio in Hackney, overlooking London’s Regent’s Canal, Rothschild produces variously scaled projects, from furniture to soaring columns. Over the decades, these have occupied spaces at the Dublin City Gallery, the Hepworth Wakefield, the Kunsthalle Zurich and Tate Britain, where, in 2009, she created a three-dimensional black line that ran the length of the Duveen Galleries like ink come to life, ricocheting off walls at sharp angles.
At this year’s Venice Biennale, Rothschild represented Ireland with an interactive exhibition titled ‘The Shrinking Universe’. Here, a spray-painted bronze sculpture stood sentinel over graffitied polystyrene boulders, a wall built from geometric concrete bricks and spindly steel frames juxtaposed with scattered cylinders. The combination of monumental forms with so-called ‘throwaway’ materials, such as cardboard or plastic, silently interrogates consumer culture and environmentally damaging lifestyles.
Early next year, Rothschild will install a 16-metrehigh steel frame resembling an upside-down tree struck by lightning at Lewis Cubitt Park in King’s Cross. Named My World and Your World, the sculpture will provide a social spot where people can convene. ‘In my teenage years, you’d always have to meet someone at a particular point – in Dublin, it would be Trinity Gate or the Clerys clock,’ recalls Rothschild. ‘It will be amazing to have created a piece that becomes a focal point to people’s living.’
Much like her Biennale installation, the design appears delicate from afar, as if the wind could sweep it away, but is in fact designed to be approached, touched and leaned on. Though even a material as sturdy as steel can change with time, Rothschild has faith in the sculpture’s ability to endure beyond her lifetime. As she points out: ‘When something comes into the language of art, it will last forever.’ ‘My World and Your World’ by Eva Rothschild, part of the
King’s Cross Project, will launch in spring 2020.