CAS Talks supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a year-long programme of talks by contemporary artists that take place in the Contemporary Art Society’s Member Museums across the UK. The talks happen as a work by the artist enters the museum collection and are designed to introduce artists to new audiences.
Alan Kane will be giving a talk at The Collection and Usher Gallery, Lincoln on 17 February 2015 at 3.30pm. The Collection and Usher Gallery, Lincoln recently acquired Home-works 1 (2014) and Home-works 2 (2014) through the Contemporary Art Society’s Fine Art Acquisitions Scheme which are not on permanent display.
To book a place on this talk please click here or visit The Collection and Usher Gallery Lincoln website
Alan Kane (b. 1961, Nottingham, UK) is based in London. Past projects include solo exhibitions at galleries including the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2011), Turner Contemporary, Margate (2006), and the Showroom, London (2000) and Life Class / Today’s News, the Artangel/Jerwood Open commission for Channel 4.
Kane’s work often takes the form of sculptures incorporating found or readymade components. It plays with the entrenched systems and values of the art world, in particular the perceived hierarchies that govern different art forms.
Home-works 1 and Home-works 2 consist of reproductions of classical sculptures placed on brightly coloured painted brick plinths. They reference the neoclassical marble sculpture held by the Usher Gallery but are made of
more modest materials including bricks, mortar and garden sculptures. This highlights the subjective nature of their status as fine art objects. For some, they sit uncomfortably within a fine art institution, and for others they represent the democratisation of the Usher’s collection. The illustration opposite is an artist’s sketch for the work, which will be made on site during summer 2014
In 2010 the Usher merged with The Collection and now has an active contemporary art programme. Kane’s works will be sited in an important open-air location joining the two sites. One of the strengths of their joint collection is a group of neoclassical sculptures by Joseph Nollekens, John Gibson and John Bacon which Kane’s works specifically
relate to.
