Tim Silver: Coming around again & Rory

Overview

The second law of thermodynamics, entropy, states that all energy is eventually equalised. Molecules disintegrate as matter is neutralised; like ice cubes melting in a glass of water which in time will be room temperature. It sounds like a pretty self-evident law, but for centuries western culture has aspired to ideals of monumental permanence and art that survives untarnished and unchanged.

Rejecting orthodox sculptural materials that are valued for their strength and durability, like stone and bronze, Tim Silver's art is one of transience and eternal incompletion. His cast and carved forms - made of malleable media like crayon, watercolour pigment, chocolate, dirt or sand are forever in a state of transformation, either evolving from of devolving back to nothingness.

Marking new experiments with dried herbs and spices, his Coming around again series comprises photographs of small sculptures made from ground nutmeg, ginger, turmeric or cinnamon. They are recognisable forms like light bulbs, cassettes, sunglasses and other cheap, mass-produced goods, and as they sit on a shoreline the tide comes in and gently but relentlessly wears them away.

In the main gallery room we meet Rory, a small boy made of powder blue watercolour pigment who is looking up at the ceiling, frozen in a candid moment. But as small drops of water are dispersed from above at random, his matter is disintegrating, his features are wearing away, and a powder blue puddle is slowly forming at his feet. The processes of decay and degeneration are not something to be overcome here, they are foregrounded as the very essence of Silver's art, and of all things.