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Conrad Shawcross RA b. 1977
Conrad Shawcross explores subjects that lie on
the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics
and metaphysics. He has completed a number
of major public commissions across the world,
including Paradigm outside the Francis Crick
Institute in London and the 18-metre tall Exploded
Paradigm inside the atrium of the Comcast
Technology Center in Philadelphia. Exhibitions
at institutions across the world include Palais
de Tokyo in Paris, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo,
the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania,
Wadsworth Atheneum in Connecticut, USA,
the National Gallery in London, and ARTMIA
in Beijing. He is represented by Victoria Miro in
London and Tucci Russo in Italy.
The Formations are a series of monumental and
immersive works that form part of Conrad's
ongoing explorations into the tetrahedron.
The sculptures are comprised of thousands of
interconnected tetrahedra that cascade down in
scale as they radiate outwards. Linked together,
the cellular system twists and turns in ways that
seem to defy logic. The tetrahedron behaves like
Formation I (The Dappled Light of the Sun),
2015
Weathering steel
792.1 x 792.1 x 475 cm
Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery,
London/Venice.
The contrasting titles of this work – formal,
theoretical and abstract on the one hand
and emotive, subtle and impressionistic on
the other – express something of a tension
between two aspects of the human person,
two aspects which are hard to bring together
in Western society. How might we set about
reconciling them, starting with our
children's education?
