Before Contingency After the Fact
I had seen Kuri's show at the South London Gallery previous to the talk, and became fascinated with his use of hard and soft sculptural assemblages. Therefore when the oppertunity arose to attend a talk of his at the gallery itself, I was there!
Kuri is looking at the collapse of the financial market and exploring this through his work - a lot of his pieces reference statistics; concentrated on the positioning of elements within the artworks (charts), he felt as though there had to be a physical sufficiency.
He descirbes his work as "
a heirachy of materials", a sculptural investigation into the nature of abstraction - how an experience can turn into a shape. Kuri also enjoys exploring the relationship between the soft and hard and the tension between them. Allowing the material for methaphorical potential, for an example, rocks for a doorstop - a different function.
The use of cigarettes act as a symbol of the disgarded which shifts the formal value. The use of scale adds humour and a degree of absurdity. The way they are made is important to Kuri - strictly by hand. He enjoys how the change of scale within an artwork makes you question it.
