blank projects is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Kyle Morland, his fifth with the gallery.
In this, his first solo show in blank’s new gallery space, Morland responds to it’s volume with three large sculptural works. Morland, who has a penchant for working within self imposed constraints, embraced the challenge of bringing the works into the space, solved by building them out of segmented elements. Each segment has been meticulously calculated and drawn, cut out of steel plate and bent into shape before being bolted to the next element. Added together, these straight-lined, rhomboid shapes create curved, linear forms resembling the ubiquitous air-conditioning duct, speaking to the artists preoccupation with industrial forms, materials and modes of production. Shot-blasted and painted with white enamel, these sculptures, although large in scale, have a light touch. They curve through the gallery, reaching to the ceiling and playfully articulating the space around them.
In the latter space of the gallery, Morland hints at the processes that gave rise to these works, and new works that developed out of them. Flat templates of mild steel constitute a triptych on one wall, while a series of wall-based sculptures that shift from rectangle to circle are hung on another. Maquettes and studies relating to the larger works complete the installation.
For Morland, it is imperative that he understand the making of the thing from the inside out, investigating every step in the process as he goes. This is the artist-engineer at work – building functionless things in a laborious, time-consuming process that subverts the overwhelmingly automated and profit-driven nature of invention and industry today.
Morland’s most ambitious project to date, the exhibition draws on the knowledge and experience gained from nearly a decade’s practice, combining and refining the processes and formulae applied in previous works. In particular, it is a culmination and continuation of the conceptual and material processes from the last two years.
Working across disciplines in sculpture, photography and video, Kyle Morland’s primary interests lie in forms, the systems that create them, and industrial modes of production. He often sets himself rules, and creates the necessary tools, to realise his ideas which add a set of formal constraints to the creative process and resulting work.
Morland graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2009. He has held seven solo exhibitions to date, most recently Assemble at blank projects (2016). He has participated in several group exhibitions, both locally and internationally, in Now and Then: Kyle Morland / El Loko at Zeits MOCCA (2017), Off the Wall: An 80th Celebration with Linda Givon at WITS Art Museum (2016) and Flag New York City as part of Performa 13 in New York (2013). Currently, Morland is an artist-in-residence at the A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town as part of the exhibition Parallel Play.
Morland lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
In this, his first solo show in blank’s new gallery space, Morland responds to it’s volume with three large sculptural works. Morland, who has a penchant for working within self imposed constraints, embraced the challenge of bringing the works into the space, solved by building them out of segmented elements. Each segment has been meticulously calculated and drawn, cut out of steel plate and bent into shape before being bolted to the next element. Added together, these straight-lined, rhomboid shapes create curved, linear forms resembling the ubiquitous air-conditioning duct, speaking to the artists preoccupation with industrial forms, materials and modes of production. Shot-blasted and painted with white enamel, these sculptures, although large in scale, have a light touch. They curve through the gallery, reaching to the ceiling and playfully articulating the space around them.
In the latter space of the gallery, Morland hints at the processes that gave rise to these works, and new works that developed out of them. Flat templates of mild steel constitute a triptych on one wall, while a series of wall-based sculptures that shift from rectangle to circle are hung on another. Maquettes and studies relating to the larger works complete the installation.
For Morland, it is imperative that he understand the making of the thing from the inside out, investigating every step in the process as he goes. This is the artist-engineer at work – building functionless things in a laborious, time-consuming process that subverts the overwhelmingly automated and profit-driven nature of invention and industry today.
Morland’s most ambitious project to date, the exhibition draws on the knowledge and experience gained from nearly a decade’s practice, combining and refining the processes and formulae applied in previous works. In particular, it is a culmination and continuation of the conceptual and material processes from the last two years.
Working across disciplines in sculpture, photography and video, Kyle Morland’s primary interests lie in forms, the systems that create them, and industrial modes of production. He often sets himself rules, and creates the necessary tools, to realise his ideas which add a set of formal constraints to the creative process and resulting work.
Morland graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2009. He has held seven solo exhibitions to date, most recently Assemble at blank projects (2016). He has participated in several group exhibitions, both locally and internationally, in Now and Then: Kyle Morland / El Loko at Zeits MOCCA (2017), Off the Wall: An 80th Celebration with Linda Givon at WITS Art Museum (2016) and Flag New York City as part of Performa 13 in New York (2013). Currently, Morland is an artist-in-residence at the A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town as part of the exhibition Parallel Play.
Morland lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
