Art I like - Maud Cotter

"Magnetism is a new conceptual glue for me, it feigns volition, it has its own impish behaviours, and preserves randomness within the piece. I love working with it." - from an interview with Irish artist Maud Cotter, seen here (another, more recent, interview is here).

"Consuming Pool", based on the landscape of Iceland, is a 2D work from 20 years ago; she's mostly known for her 3D work, often using found objects that are chosen for their emotional and visual context.

Of her sculpture "Rumpus Room" she says:

"I was interested in the invention of a space that absented the order of the rest of the house, "a place where the house lets go..." Vincent Abbott (critic, 1935). The fact that such a form emerged in American culture in a period of recession interested me further. The 'letting go' bit interests me more than anything else, inventing a new function within an old form. Americans built a bar, had friends round, danced, watched home movies, played pool table, and generally engaged in activities that they normally did outside the home. I recognised immediately that this form provided me with a space frame within which to cluster ideas, a space with a host of flexible readings."

Another quote:

"My work fits into making shifts in cultural attitude. We have to start at a micro level to enact profound change on a large scale. This focus of realising the unused potential of material by changing the meaning and pattern we attribute to it, is an important part of my work."

"All Stuff is Farce", her latest book, includes the essay here.