Nationalmuseum Gripsholm Castle opens for the season

A 21st century flood engulf’s the ancient space of York St Mary’s as part of a contemporary art installation, open through October 31 2010.

Renowned artist Susan Stockwell’s work see’s a tower of computer components pouring from the roof of the medieval church, filling the nave with a brightly coloured pool of metal and wire.

Stockwell’s Flood draws on themes such as communication, consumerism and capitalism, to create a thought provoking and visually stimulating installation which strikingly complements the stone architecture.

The piece is the fifth installation to be commissioned by York Museums Trust funded by the Arts Council.

Stockwell said: “Highlighting the components beauty the piece relates to the architectural form of the church, seeping into the space and surrounding us with their toxic exquisiteness. The computers have been dissected, their innards exposed, revealing the underbelly of the machines we take for granted, an autopsy of our consumer society.”

Specifically, the piece will be made of four tonnes of computer power supplies which have been sourced from Secure IT Recycling (SITR) in Cheshire, where they will be returned to be recycled in November.

These will be used as building blocks by Stockwell to create the large tower that will dominate the church. The blocks will then flow from the tower to create the “flood” of computer components, filling the nave of the church.

The piece is the latest example of numerous works and installations exhibited internationally by Stockwell which use everyday items to create works of art.

These include Memory Stack using circuit boards in Taiwan, Paper Tiger a large paper dress in London and Tea World a map of the world painted with tea on teabag paper in the United States of America. Stockwell was recently commissioned to create a piece for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Entitled Chinese Dreams, she used recycled Chinese money notes, cotton thread and red ribbon to make a quilt for their exhibition Quilts 1700-2010 Hidden Histories, Untold Stories.

A catalogue, with an interview with the artist and a foreword by Janet Barnes, chief executive of York Museums Trust, will be produced for the installation.

York St Mary’s is open 10am–4pm and free to all.

For more information on the church, Flood and past installations go to: http://www.yorkstmarys.org.uk

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