Alastair Mackie 'House' 2008 (detail). Courtesy the artist and All Visual Arts. Photo: Tessa Angus
Alastair Mackie. Not Waving but Drowning
16 January - 28 March 2009
For his first solo exhibition in London since 2005, British artist Alastair Mackie (born 1977) will present a new group of three major sculptures. The works in the show have been especially commissioned and produced over the past 12 months by The David Roberts Art Foundation.
Mackie introduces the exhibition with a 1930's glass taxidermy display case. Entitled Metamorphoses (2008): the object originally created to protect and reveal has been mirrored from the inside thus changing its function. Instead of viewing the object displayed within the glass the viewer is now confronted with their own distorted reflection. House (2008) is a large scale dolls house meticulously built from the wood pulp of 262 abandoned wasp and hornet nests. Shown on a high plinth: the toy becomes a possible model of drama, partly inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Untitled ( /-) (2008) is a large scale wooden loom with a material woven from mouse hair.
