{"id":9710,"date":"2024-02-12T11:05:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T11:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=9710"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:05:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T11:05:48","slug":"nick-hornbys-brain-bending-sculptures-twist-history-into-new-shapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=9710","title":{"rendered":"Nick Hornby\u2019s Brain-Bending Sculptures Twist History Into New Shapes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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You can get a crash course in Nick Hornby\u2019s work in the span of an hour-long London walk. The artist has three permanent sculptures installed across the city, metal silhouettes that start off familiar but transform depending on your vantage point. In St. James, his conquering equestrian, modeled on Richard I, becomes an amorphous squiggle as you circle; while in Kensington, his take on Caspar David Friedrich\u2019s Wanderer<\/em><\/a> turns abstract; and a bust of Nefertiti doubles as the Albert Memorial.<\/p>\n

Raising questions about power and the role of the monument, the trio are a clever combo of craft and concept. They\u2019re also feats of digital innovation. The equestrian, for example, started out as a digital model scripted in Python. It was then unrolled into individual components to be laser-cut from metal, then assembled by fabricators. \u201cIt was a lovely, seamless relationship between concept, digital processes, and mechanical fabrications\u2014165 pieces manipulated into the six-and-a-half ton object,\u201d says Hornby from his studio in northwest London. \u201cBut when people look at it, they don’t see that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think that one of the distinctive features of my work is its ambition to capture the imagination of anyone, not limited to the art world; to try to address complicated ideas in plain English. Anyone will recognize the trope of the man on the horse and will have a reaction to how I have manipulated it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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