A visit to Quartzsite served as a starting point for the two large kite sculptures, Kind, Wise and Loving (2008) and The Opposite of All Those Things (2008). The artists travelled to the desert in search of mineral samples of uncanny natural geometry, finding forms that looked like they had been machined to perfection. These rocks informed the geometric structure of the artists' sculptures, which were produced in collaboration with a company specialising in the manufacture of three-dimensional fabric structures and kites. While the sculptures retain the essence of the form of the rocks, they are physically opposite: large, lightweight structures, produced from man-made materials and designed to fly (The Opposite of All Those Things was flown on the beach at Blackpool prior to its first exhibition at the town's Grundy Art Gallery). In flight the kites become ominous, heavy-looking rocks, meteorites held floating in the sky moments before impact.
Ben Tufnell, Mythologies, exh. cat., Haunch of Venison, 2009, p.134

In [these] works we encounter elements that appear as if they were autonomous life-forms: manmade constructions which regardless of their artificiality seem as if they have entered the world by their own force, and have simply been observed or picked from nature and placed in the gallery.
Rikke Hansen, Mythologies, Art Monthly, May, 2009

Kind, Wise and Loving
2008
Mylar and carbon fibre
230 x 200 x 335cm

The Opposite of All Those Things
2008
Ripstop fabric and carbon fibre
263 x 330 x 440cm

Installation: Mythologies,
Haunch of Venison, London, 2009
Photos: Peter Mallet