These garbage sculptures seem meaningless, but when they are illuminated the incredible happens

Tim Noble and his Webster, a couple of British artists, create curious combinations of garbage and apparently meaningless scrap, at least until they are illuminated. By shifting attention to their shadows, incredible portraits and scenes emerge.

As in the 2002 “Real Life Is Rubbish” work, where a mass of tools, wooden chairs, paint cans and other debris intended for the dumpster, all from the old Riverton Street study, project the shadows of two people on the wall sessions, or Tim and his lost in their thoughts. The artists said that “Real Life is Rubbish” led to an important turning point in their artistic path, leading them to deconstructed constructivism that developed in subsequent welded metal works.

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“Sunset Over Manhattan” of 2003 is a table full of packets of cigarettes, cans and other waste, but when the light illuminates it from a precise angle, here that that shapelessness of garbage turns into the Manhattan skyline.

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It also happens that a vase of silk flowers and plastic properly illuminated projected the shadow of two faces, as in the 2002 work “Waldermar Januszczak in The Sunday Times”.

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“Instant Gratification” of 2001 is a sculpture made for the Gagosian Beverly Hills with dollars, electric fans, plastic tokens and other elements. After asking – Larry Gagosian 10,000 dollars in banknotes from a dollar – to sculpt a double self -portrait made entirely in cash, the two artists were notified by the Gagosian lawyers that the operation was illegal.

His did not give up and contacted the FBI to understand if it was actually prohibited, discovering that in reality in America it is illegal – removing currency from the circulation – and that in the event of inspection by the customs of the United States, the important thing was to succeed To demonstrate that each sculpture banknote could be opened, ironed and put back in circulation.

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“The Original Sinners” of 2000 is a sculpture made with fruit and fake berries, cortex and musk, plastic bowls, fishing drizzle, cooking oil, metal, MDF and the mechanism of an electric pump. The inspiration for the work comes from both Arcimboldo and from the old plastic fountain typical of Brooklyn Italian-American restaurants. The work, once illuminated, projects the shadow of Tim intent on urinating and his who splashes milk from the breast.

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“The Negative” of 2004 is a shapeless mass of metal which, illuminated, gives life to the shade of two heads (always those of the artists) similar to the pharaonic figures of ancient Egypt.

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“Falling Apart” of 2001 was born from a series of personal objects thrown and broken by Tim and Sue in a period of profound relational crisis: the work is a sculptural fury -as the couple defined it, and projects on the wall The shadows of their angry heads, while evoking an image of the Bacon study.

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What can I say, here pulls air of genius!