Evolution 2005-2007
Marc Quinn has made a lasting impact on the capital. His sculpture of (the pregnant, handicapped) Alsion Napper occupied the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square for what seemed like years. He has since produced more large-scale figures of disabled children and adults. Quinn has been understandably disillusioned by ignorant objections to his chosen subjects – depicting disability honestly and monumentally. Quinn has admitted that his latest show, Evolution, is something of a reaction against these misguided responses. Evolution opened at the White Cube, Piccadilly, last Friday and sees Quinn making the heavy impact that only hard stone can.
The first exhibition room is hosting an enchanting (but largely unremarkable) installation of bronze cast fruit-plants. It’s an interesting exercise in hyper hyper-reality but largely a pre-ample to the lower floors. Here, the meat of the show is of course the Evolution installation. The nine faux classical sculptures are carved out of 10ft (ish) pillars of pink marble. Each one represents a human foetus at each month of gestation. The more ‘alien’ looking parasites were, for Quinn, a humbling reminder to his critics of their own strange beginnings. For all of us each glimmering, pink creature confronts us with our phenomenal yet peculiarly animal course of being. The technique leaves a good portion of visible, rough marble, so the creatures seem to squirm and writhe in their holding.
Yet, just as the white stone smoothed over the missing limbs of Quinn’s last sculptural series, this pink marble smoothes over any suggestion of liquid, bodily matter. It leaves us with this a-human spectacle. The ‘evolution’ of the title becomes something symbolic, detached from biological reality. It is a very postmodern treatment of the miracle of species.
However there’s no underrating the affecting power of the sculptures. The layout is highly successful in creating a primeval space. Four foetus sculptures stand on either side, while the formation representing the most mature baby is at the head of the room. Opposite this is a large boulder of untouched marble, the same used in the sculptures. Its inclusion is crucial to the entire composition. This raw rock is like the mother material, the pure matter. It emphasises notions of origins. Including a hunk of the base material also forces the viewer to consider the method used by Quinn’s handymen, turning rock into ‘beautiful’ forms of wriggling embryos.
Is Quinn’s title saying something more than this? The use of Italian Renaissance sculpting alludes to a civilised, classical society. Is “evolution” a cynical metaphor for Western cultural development; genetic engineering, DNA manipulation? This would account for their clinical accuracy. A cool nod to medical radicalism would be of no surprise – this is the man who cast his head in his own frozen blood! And perhaps this is the typical approach of Quinn. He has been accused of failing to go the whole hog with his radicalism. He side steps at the last moment and beautifies any realness out of his potentially unnerving subjects. Then again, this detachment from gritty realism gives his work a broader, more symbolic voice. Whatever the pessimistic premise for their conception(!) the big, fleshy pink infants are impressive and they are well worth seeing. - Holly Pester
Marc Quinn's Evolution is currently at the White Cube Gallery until 23 February 2008.
Copyright: Marc Quinn
Photography: Marc Quinn Studio