SKIP Gallery: Q&A with Richard Woods
As a student at the Slade School of Art, Richard Woods would rummage through skips on the hunt for discarded materials to craft into elaborate sculptures. An upcoming project sees him return to familiar turf/tarmac.
Upgrade is a month-long site-specific installation that will be positioned in a parking space in East London throughout June. Created by Woods in collaboration with SKIP Gallery, the exhibition will quite literally take place within an industrial skip.
The installation takes cues from the Wood’s contribution to the 2017 Folkestone Triennial. Holiday Home comprised six cartoonishly colourful bungalows that were dotted around the harbour town. This time, however, the house acquires new meaning by being framed by the walls of the skip in which it sits – perhaps representing the elements of a home that are discarded or abandoned in the process of renovation, regeneration and upgrading. With Upgrade, the gallery becomes part of the artwork.
Woods has long been a Zetteler favourite – our former office was right next door to the artist’s wooden house in Bethnal Green – but we’re not the only ones who think highly of the artist. His recent commissions, to name just a handful, include a ski jump for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, Comme des Garçons’ flagship store in Osaka, and Cary Grant’s former home in LA, now owned by the art dealer Jefferey Deitch.
Museums and institutions worldwide are also fans – the likes of Saatchi Collection, Arts Council England, the British Museum, the V&A, and MoMA all hold Richard’s works in their collections.
Ahead of the exhibition opening in June, Woods gives us the inside scoop on Upgrade.
What appealed to you about working with SKIP Gallery?
I love the idea of taking a gallery space ‘on the road’ – it’s a brilliant idea! With every project that SKIP Gallery completes, the stronger and more profound its statement will become. It is great to be a small part of that process.
How does Upgrade build on your work Holiday Home for the 2017 Folkestone Triennial?
The first manifestation of Holiday Homes was built in Folkestone as part of the Triennial. Once they were completed they were positioned in various locations around the town. I wanted the works to contribute to ongoing discussions on housing shortages, second home ownership and population movements.
Can you tell us a bit about how Upgrade explores the politics behind social housing and urban regeneration?
As a student at the Slade School, I spent many hours walking the areas north of Kings Cross. I would look for skips containing plywood that I could drag back to Gower Street Studios and make into sculpture. Many of these skips contained kitchens or three piece suites. By proposing that a whole house could be cast aside and put into a skip I am highlighting and exaggerating this process of gentrification.
Why do you find architectural elements like boards, bricks and dry stone walls such rich material to explore in your work?
I enjoy observing the way we use materials to individually fashion our domestic spaces and, on a larger scale, the way our towns are planned and constructed. Shaping and altering our immediate surroundings is a fundamental part of being alive.
Want to know more about SKIP Gallery? Read Zetteler’s interview with gallery co-founder Catherine Borowski.
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