Paul McCarthy at Tate ModernPresented by The Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects in partnership with Tate ModernTate Modern North Landscape19 May -- 26 October 2003Admission free. Open every day 10.00--18.00 Friday and Saturday until 22.00.
The first major installation on Tate Modern's North Landscape will be a newly commissioned inflatable sculpture by the American Paul McCarthy, who is considered one of the most influential and groundbreaking artists of today. Blockhead will stand over thirty-five metres tall and be a spectacular addition to London's Bankside.
Paul McCarthy (born 1945) uses the language and imagery of the all-pervasive American consumer culture he grew up with, in work that distorts and mutates the familiar into the disturbing and carnivalesque. McCarthy first became known in the 1970s for his visceral performances and film works but during the 1990s extended his practice into stand alone sculptural figures, installations and most recently a series of large inflatable sculptures. His recent retrospective was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2000, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Villa Arson, Nice, France and Tate Liverpool in 2001.
Blockhead will be loosely based on the character of Pinocchio, but as in much of McCarthy's work, this popular children's character is mutated, on this occasion with funfair spectacle. There will be an opening at the base of the figure leading into a cavernous hallway where visitors will be able to purchase specially made candy. The enormous scale of the figure is designed to physically overpower the viewer, an experience the artist has likened to standing at the bottom of a cliff, describing the inflatable as "an abstract that rises up and over your head". However, this extraordinary physical presence will be seemingly negated by the black surface which McCarthy describes as creating "a black object" which becomes "a hole in the landscape". Among McCarthy's earliest works was a series of black paintings made in 1967-68 and he has quoted several of the leading artists from this period, such as American sculptor Tony Smith, in reference to the starkness of Blockhead's black form. Shown alongside Blockhead will be Daddies Bighead, a second newly commissioned inflatable sculpture that will stand approximately half the height of Blockhead at sixteen metres tall. Daddies Bighead will be based on a ketchup bottle. Ketchup has been a pivotal motif through all of McCarthy's work. He has frequently used ketchup in his performances and installations, along with other grocery stables of domestic life such as mayonnaise and chocolate, as stand-ins for bodily fluids.
Notes to editorsDaddies Bighead is shown Courtesy Hauser and Wirth Gallery London/Zurich and Luhring Augustine, New York. Blockhead is a reworking of Chocolate Blockhead, commissioned by In-Between for Expo 2000, Hanover.
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