The Singing Sculpture in 1973 by Gilbert & George merged sculpture & performance, in the work that made them famous. Metallic coloured faces & hands painted with a mix of powder and Vaseline, & using a table as their plinth, they sang as ilike a pair of Depression-era tramps, slowly repeating a series of gestures & circling mechanically like figures inside a music box.
Gilbert & George are now among the most famous living British artists, known for their signature billboard-sized pictures in bright neon colours, showing them together, suited or naked, among a kaleidoscope of images & symbols. The Singing Sculpture is now recognised as the art piece that launched their career. It embodied & communicated their idiosyncratic personae & the concept of ‘living sculpture’ that has informed their lives & art over 40 years.
Kaldor Public Art Project 3: Gilbert and George, 2010 interview PART 1 from Kaldor Public Art Projects on Vimeo.
Gilbert & George met in the 1960s as students at St Martin’s School of Art where they began to explore radical ideas such as portable sculpture & in 1969 they removed the mediation of the art object entirely, shifting focus to the actions & rituals of their daily lives as ‘Living Sculpture’.
Wearing timeless, tailored suits & neckties, they adopted a posture of genteel decorum, enacted through a flow of polite interactions and formal modes of correspondence. They invited audiences to Lecture Sculpture & Meal Sculpture, or to view Walking Sculpture & agazine Sculpture.
Kaldor Public Art Project 3: Gilbert and George, 2010 interview PART 2 from Kaldor Public Art Projects on Vimeo.
Crowds flocked to see¬†The Singing Sculpture¬†in Australia, many staying to watch the work for hours at a time. In Sydney, ‚ÄòUnderneath the arches‚Äô was repeated 112 times a day, presented for five hours each day over six days in the entrance court of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, then¬†for five hours a day over five days¬†at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria. As part of the environment for the work, Gilbert & George also displayed large ‚Äòcharcoal-on-paper sculptures‚Äô, across the gallery walls.
Kaldor Public Art Project 3: Gilbert and George, 2010 interview PART 3 from Kaldor Public Art Projects on Vimeo.
This text is an edited excerpt from the publication 40 Years: Kaldor Public Art Projects.
See Gilbert & George’s 2010 visit to Australia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kaldor Public Art Projects.
Below is the full video of Gilbert & George at NSW College of Fine Arts, 2010.
