Nicole Wermers : 'Earring' at Camden Arts Centre

Tuesday, 19 September 2006 22:18

LONDON - Camden Arts Centre is unveiling Nicole Wermers’ greatly anticipated first public sculpture on the exterior of its recently redeveloped Victorian building from 29 September.  A giant ‘mother-of-pearl’ earring will be ‘pierced’ into the side of the building.  The sculpture plays on the relationship between architecture and the body as well as reflecting Nicole Wermers’ interest in design and the transformation of materials into luxury goods.

Proposed during her residency last year at Camden Arts Centre, Earring suggests a connection between the people inhabiting the building and the space around it.  An ingenious design involving metal plates and hooks creates the impression that it is pierced into the wall. Exhibition 29 September – 10 December 2006.

Her research into man-made materials associated with high value goods led her to consider how their surfaces reflect the desires projected onto them by individuals.  Simple materials are transformed by lacquers and shellac, the intensive labor involved transforms them into symbols of expense, extravagance or indulgence – as with piano surfaces, surfboards, cars and manicured nails.

Nicole Wermers (b. 1971 Emsdetten, Germany) lives and works in London.  She undertook a residency at Camden Arts Centre in 2005 and has had solo exhibitions at Herald Street, London; the Secession, Vienna; Millers Terrace, London; Galerie Borgmann-Nathusius, Cologne and Produzentengalerie, Hamburg.  Recent group exhibitions include the Tate Triennial (2006); The Subversive Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, Van Abbe Museum, Einhoven (2006); Around The World In 80 Days, ICA, London (2006); The Future Has A Silver Lining, Migros Museum, Zurich (2004) and Pin-Up, Tate Modern (2004-5).