15 December 2009

Art I Like - Stuart Haygarth

An "ongoing relationship with abandonned objects" and "fascination with taxonomy" characterise the work of Stuart Haygarth, on show at Haunch of Venison. He collects discarded objects, such as these broken wing mirrors collected from the roads of London (so many! what stories could they tell...) -These reflections are through the chandelier made of spectacles -
Another chandelier made of lenses is in the cafe (which has some lovely cake stands made of plates separated by ornate upturned glasses - neglected to photograph those, will have to go back...) -
And what of the rest of the pairs of spectacles, the bit that goes round your ear? He's made more chandeliers of those, which look like clusters of evil insects - I couldn't bear to photograph them, or even grab an image from the web, but if you go to image 21 of the installation images here you can see them.

After art school Haygarth worked for 15 years as a photographic illustrator, until in 2004 he started to use his lost and found memorabilia to create lighting installations. The first was a lampshade made of party poppers collected after Millennium Eve.

He says: "My work revolves around everyday objects, collected in large quantities, categorized and presented in such a way that they are given new meaning. It is about giving banal and overlooked objects new significance" and "I'm not interested in design as functional problem solving, I like the fact that there's a history or a narrative behind each piece that I make."

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