Isabelle Sully’s
current work has an overarching interest in the value-producing systems that operate within contemporary art. Recent works have
ranged from transposing pieces of rubbish into copper and aluminum sculptures,
covering paper bags in resin, making seating out of blocks of sandstone for
group shows and casting pistachio shells in bronze.
The notion of ‘making something from something else’ is central to Sully’s practice, as a means to generate shifts in and of value. Using materiality to prompt awareness to such shifts, Sully draws on ideals of the Enlightenment and Modernist tendencies to reverse the preciousness of object-hood in art in pursuit of a social, and more politicized, turn.
The notion of ‘making something from something else’ is central to Sully’s practice, as a means to generate shifts in and of value. Using materiality to prompt awareness to such shifts, Sully draws on ideals of the Enlightenment and Modernist tendencies to reverse the preciousness of object-hood in art in pursuit of a social, and more politicized, turn.
Referring to
ways in which we organize ourselves through architectural and institutional frameworks,
the dichotomy of interior and exterior space is treated as a starting point
through which dwelling and situation become central. By documenting actions
through video, erecting flags in public and private space and abstracting
functional objects such as balls and shelving, Isabelle Sully’s practice locates
itself in a series of open-ended experiments in material form that begin to sketch
out ways of approaching the world.
