A new exhibition opening at The Lowry this weekend will celebrate ‘art in the everyday’ through the work of Turner Prizer-winner, Martin Creed, and a whole host of international contemporary artists including Erwin Wurm, Gavin Turk, Karina Smigla-Bobinksi and Willi Dorner.
The exhibition, entitled ‘ExtraORDINARY: Everyday objects and actions in contemporary art’ brings together artists who use banal objects or deceptively simple actions to turn the everyday into art.
Among the work on exhibition is:
Work No. 79. Some Blu-tack kneaded, rolled into a ball, and depressed against a wall; Work No. 88 . A sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball; Work No. 603; (6 different kinds of cactuses) & Work No. 701 (Nails) all by Martin Creed.
Austrian artist Willi Dorner’s Bodies in Urban Spaces project has seen groups of performers in brightly coloured clothes cramming themselves into doorways, alcoves and any gap they can find in public spaces and will be celebrated in a selection of arresting photographs.
Smigla-Bobinski’s ADA installation is a playful interactive art-making machine – a giant helium globe that floats freely in the gallery space, its charcoal tips creating an evolving drawing on the walls, floor and ceiling as visitors push it around the space.
Visitors can also become a work of art themselves by taking part in Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures – which outline ingenious and mischievous instructions on how to pose with everyday objects in spontaneous ways.
Kate Farrell, special exhibitions manager at The Lowry, said:
“There is a longstanding tradition of artists using everyday objects in their work, and this playful approach to contemporary art can be extended to the quintessential everyday object: the human body; an object that we all own and can be used to initiate, create and facilitate creative expression which will be encouraged within this exhibition, ensuring visitors have the opportunity to contribute to works of art in the gallery for others to enjoy.”
The exhibition runs until the 18th October.
