Portrait of Jim Lambie. |
Turning Ready-Mades into Shiny Installations and Interventions |
Jim Lambie, Slow Motion, 2004, Installation at Anton Kern Gallery, New York, Collection Susan and Michael Hort.
Jim Lambie, Ska's Not Dead, 2001, Mixed media installation, 36 x 36 x 72 cm, Tate Collection, Presented by Tate
Jim Lambie, Danceteria V, 2006, Broken mirror pieces, chair, handbag, glue, 52.8 x 38.2 x 18.9", Courtesy of the |
Museum of Fine Arts Boston Jim Lambie takes the ephemera of modern life and transforms it into vibrant sculptural installations. Working with items found in and around the streets near his studio, as well as those sourced in second-hand shops and hardware stores, he selects materials that are familiar and that have a strong personal, yet universal resonance. A common theme in his artistic practice is using brightly coloured tape, arranged into patterns around the floor of the gallery space, tracing the shape of the room to reveal the Idiosyncrasies of its architecture. Lambie breathes new life into turntables and speakers, clothing and accessories, doors and mirrors to form sculptures and site-specific installations that champion sensory pleasure over intellectual response. His works are often devised in relation to a particular space, where he uses intuition and improvisation to shape his decisions. This enables him to work in tune with the qualities of his materials and the parameters of the existing architecture. Lambie's objects and installations playfully find high-modernist forms in junk from the 1960s and '70s, the era when "modern" became a mass-culture aesthetic. In his floor installation Zobop, black duct tape forms a monochrome abstraction on the floor, a pattern determined by specific peculiarities of the gallery's architecture. Within this field, Lambie includes a series of sculptures, each cleverly transforming found objects into elegant abstractions. Made of chair backs, old handbags, and pieces of mirror, The Jesus and Mary Chain recalls a plaza and bedazzled inhabitants who might stroll there. Hanging high above, Sunbed (Tan Tropez) glows like an artificial sun; and leaning against the far wall, Psychedelic Soul Stick playfully lauds the symbolic power of found abstraction. This unobtrusive work made from a branch wrapped in hundreds of layers of shredded record albums, photos, colored ribbons, and thread is part of a larger series in which bits collected from favorite recordings, significant photos, or beloved sweaters are transformed into a shamanistic object possessing the combined symbolic powers of the objects it is made from. Lambie was shortlisted for the 2005 Turner Prize with an installation called Mental Oyster. He lives and works in Glasgow, and also operates as a DJ. He was once part of a popular Glaswegian band called The Boy Hairdressers, which went on to become Teenage Fan Club after Lambie left.
Jim Lambie, Touch Zobop, Duveen Galleries, Tate Britain, 2003.
Jim Lambie, Split Endz (wig mix), 2005, wardrobes, mirror, belts, training shoes, gloss paint, 184 x 137 x 120cm. |
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Jim Lambie (Scottish, b. 1964). ZOBOP, 2006. Vinyl tape. Dimensions variable. Fund for the Twenty-First Century, © 2008 Jim Lambie / Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York. |
