Body search: how artist Toby Ziegler used Google to remix Matisse
British artist Toby Ziegler regularly explores ‘digital technology and the things that happen between it and analogue world’, and his latest works on show at the New Art Centre near Salisbury combine traditional coil-pot making, screen printing, painting and 3D printing techniques.
The show, entitled ‘Slave’, is inspired by Matisse, but Zielgler’s starting point was Google Images. He lowered the resolution of various Matisse bronzes until they became unrecognisable, abstract blurs, before turning them into hand coiled clay models. ‘I wanted them to look like they had come off a 3D printer, although they were made by hand,’ he explains. The clay models were then 3D printed and cast in aluminium. ‘Along the way I kept interfering with the printer, disrupting it, to make it fail, in the same way that coil pots slump and fall.’
Installation view of ‘Slave’ at the New Art Centre. © The artist. Courtesy of New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park
The resulting sculptures are rococo forms with disruptive flourishes, baroque pieces that have been battered into the twenty first century. ‘They look like geological forms, like stalactites or layers of sedimentary rock, he muses, ‘but at the same time they look forced, not natural at all.’ A Google image search, this time for Matisse’s Large Reclining Nude (1935) provided the source imagery for Ziegler’s two paintings, and Matisse’s reliefs depicting progressively abstracted representations of a woman’s back are the inspiration for the four new screen prints that fill the gallery.
It’s the second time Ziegler has shown at Roche Court, a 19th-century country estate with its own art gallery and sculpture park. The New Art Centre is one of three contemporary spaces on the grounds and Ziegler’s sculptures, cast in oxidised aluminium will remain in situ until 26 November. ‘They will turn white as they age,’ he says. ‘One day, they might almost look like marble.’
Installation view of ‘Slave’ at the New Art Centre. © The artist. Courtesy of New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park
Installation view of ‘Slave’ at the New Art Centre. © The artist. Courtesy of New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park
Installation view of ‘Slave’ at the New Art Centre. © The artist. Courtesy of New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park
INFORMATION
’Slave’ is on view until 26 November. For more information, visit the New Art Centre website
ADDRESS
New Art Centre
Roche Court
East Winterslow
Salisbury SP5 1BG
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Emma O'Kelly is a freelance journalist and author based in London. Her books include Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat and she is currently working on a UK guide to wild saunas, due to be published in 2025.
-
Nela is London's new stage for open-fire gastronomyA beloved Amsterdam import brings live-fire elegance to The Whiteley’s grand revival
-
How we host: with Our Place founder, Shiza ShahidWelcome, come on in, and take a seat at Wallpaper*s new series 'How we host' where we dissect the art of entertaining. Here, we speak to Our Place founder Shiza Shahid on what makes the perfect dinner party, from sourcing food in to perfecting the guest list, and yes, Michelle Obama is invited
-
Matteo Thun carves a masterful thermal retreat into the Canadian RockiesBasin Glacial Waters, a project two decades in the making, finally surfaces at Lake Louise, blurring the boundaries between architecture and terrain
-
Rolf Sachs’ largest exhibition to date, ‘Be-rühren’, is a playful study of touchA collection of over 150 of Rolf Sachs’ works speaks to his preoccupation with transforming everyday objects to create art that is sensory – both emotionally and physically
-
Architect Erin Besler is reframing the American tradition of barn raisingAt Art Omi sculpture and architecture park, NY, Besler turns barn raising into an inclusive project that challenges conventional notions of architecture
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth MenorcaUS-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
-
San Francisco’s controversial monument, the Vaillancourt Fountain, could be facing demolitionThe brutalist fountain is conspicuously absent from renders showing a redeveloped Embarcadero Plaza and people are unhappy about it, including the structure’s 95-year-old designer
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth SomersetAn intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership
-
Technology, art and sculptures of fog: LUMA Arles kicks off the 2025/26 seasonThree different exhibitions at LUMA Arles, in France, delve into history in a celebration of all mediums; Amy Serafin went to explore
-
Inside Yinka Shonibare's first major show in AfricaBritish-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare is showing 15 years of work, from quilts to sculptures, at Fondation H in Madagascar
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact