Felix Pryor

Throughout the year my practice has explored the conceptual issues inherent in an aesthetic of power and the production of the monument, through a formal investigation of sculptural concerns such as scale, materiality and balance. I have appropriated sculptural and architectural methodologies, creating installations that point towards the monument and its possible failure. This exploration has entailed the creation of my own little monuments, with their own small cruelties. But the seduction and power presented by my work, its tension and its risk, seduce and repel the viewer simultaneously.

Some works have centered around potential energies or latent cruelties, such as glass wanting to smash or pierce. Other works have sought to emulate the exterior elements of the monumental with variously polished surfaces and vapid abstract forms, but failed to develop a deeper critique of monumentalism. Paradoxically, the most important moments have been about celebrating the simple beauty of formal sculptural issues - and the extent to which these notions can be played with. This has entailed bringing notions of weight, materiality and balance to the fore. Gravity and friction are pushed to their limits, found materials are celebrated and architectural tropes are upended.