Economist Plaza Exhibition: David Rickard – Test Flights

David Rickard, Test Flights, installation view detail, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: Matthew Blaney

David Rickard, Test Flights, aerial view, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: the artist

David Rickard, Test Flights, installation view, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: Matthew Blaney

David Rickard, Test Flights, installation view, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: Matthew Blaney

David Rickard, Test Flights, installation view, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: Matthew Blaney

David Rickard, Test Flights, detail, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: Matthew Blaney

David Rickard, Test Flights, detail, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: the artist

David Rickard, Test Flights, installation view detail, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: the artist

David Rickard, Test Flights, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010).

David Rickard, Test Flights, installation view, The Economist Plaza, London (27 November — 26 March 2010). Photo: Matthew Blaney

Test Flights is a sculpture created for the Economist Plaza with an intriguing twist on site-specificity. Three sculptures are located at the base of the three towers of the Smithson-designed Economist buildings.

Each form makes visible the forces of gravity and the power of free fall – for it is as if they have been dropped from each tower. The deformation of the sculptures charts the different heights of the buildings, varying from moderate compression of the original sphere to nearly complete flattening.

David Rickard originally studied architecture in Auckland, New Zealand and later fine art in Milan and London. The processes he employs are informed by a playful but considered subversion of the usage of materials and objects to produce conceptual upsets in the everyday and question familiar perceptions of our surroundings.

Test Flights has been funded by Arts Council England, and is being produced as part of an artist residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre (ECWC), Amsterdam.

www.david-rickard.net

You can preview the making of the work at ECWC in a short film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhJ4-Je5pBI