Hew Locke | Starchitect

Solo show at ArtSway. 2011
Date: 5 February, 2011 until 3 April, 2011
Curator: Peter Bonnell
Organiser: ArtSway

Starchitect was a major installation by Hew Locke, that took place at ArtSway, in 2011. The exhibition coincided with a major monograph on Locke, of similar proportions to Locke’s earlier monograph published by New Art Gallery Walsall. Titled Hew Locke: Stranger in Paradise, the monograph combined essays on Locke’s practice with extensive reproductions of work. It was published by Black Dog Publishing in 2011.

The Introduction, by Stephanie James and Peter Bonnell, drew particular attention to Starchitect:

This publication also marks a major new installation called Starchitect - an installation by Locke commissioned by ArtSway and the Arts University College at Bournemouth (AUCB), and installed at ArtSway from 5 February to 3 April 2011.  Starchitect is a natural successor and development of such works as Hemmed in Two, 2000, and 2004, and Cardboard Palace, 2002, but with this new work Locke has taken his cardboard creations one step further - with the structure being made from sheets of plywood. The seemingly soft and yielding nature of the earlier cardboard installations are replaced by the hard and durable feel of the structure that is Starchitect. This new installation mirrors the sensation of Locke’s former works; a structure is created where the gallery visitor can enter, being whisked away from their normal surroundings - and taken, as the artist suggests, “on a journey” that develops the further they engage with the space. Starchitect is a large and meandering installation where one can encounter - set on various viewing platforms - objects created by Locke that encapsulate his continued interest in global power, and the loss of that power within a modern context. Alongside the exhibition at ArtSway, there is a companion exhibition at The Gallery at the Arts University College at Bournemouth that features drawings, wall-based works and sculpural objects by Locke.”

»  Hew Locke | Stranger in Paradise

Book relating to an individual, 2011