Sophie Smallhorn

Description

Sharp cubic forms of saturated colour, randomly scattered, pull our eye along the length of their distribution. Sometimes our vision is knocked off course as Sophie Smallhorn tricks us by the introduction of a 'wild card' - a bland grey confronting cherry red, or blue standing within yellow's path. This colour game is endless in its variety and in an outdoor location it alters daily, even hourly, as the colours variously absorb or reflect changing amounts of light. No 43 is only the second sculpture that Smallhorn has made on a large scale for an outdoor environment. It follows a piece commissioned by Comme des Garçons for their Tokyo headquarters in 1999, which took the general shape of a train moving round a corner of the building.

Having formerly worked exclusively on small-scale, wall-mounted compositions in which individual elements could be held in the hand (and which indeed were hand made), Sophie Smallhorn found that on a large scale it was more difficult to obtain a complete overview of her work. In its Goodwood location No 43 has been given an ideal site, as it may be viewed from different levels and the viewer can walk around the elements. To wander amongst these rectilinear forms changes our experience of the sculpture; a systematic approach, pattern, repetition or format is more difficult to identify. In fact there is no geometry in their distribution, and the colour sequence follows no logic. In working out how the colours will relate Smallhorn invariably starts with families of reds - and in this case the juxtaposition of closely related reds may be the beginning of a trail of gently changing hues or, depending how we choose to progress, a contrasting colour may block our visual path. Areas of calm are punctuated with frissons of day-glo pink, blues abut greys or yellow stands apart. These forty-three colour-laden cuboids of only five differing configurations are a feast of rainbow fragments.