Eva Rothschild - Cold Corners

Eva Rothschild,Cold Corners, 2009, © Copyright the artist, Photo: Sam Drake/Tate Photography

Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2009 Supported by Sotheby’s

30 June - 29 November 2009

 By Claire Breukel

 This year the Duveen Gallery Annual Commission was awarded to British sculptress Eva Rothschild. Comprised of twenty-six adjoining triangles, Rothschild’s piece entitled Cold Corners, is a site specific intervention, or rather interjection, into the vast space of this nineteenth century Neo Classical passageway of the Tate Britain.

 “Not another 1960’s minimalist intervention in a space” was the first response walking in to the expanse of marble and catching a glimpse of the tangled framework of glossy black scalene and isosceles. Although the piece is obviously Minimalist in physicality, it has a presence that is curiously captivating and strangely poetic as if spelling out a number of words that make up a story, or a series of movements that contribute to a dance.

 Studying the first splayed-out form in a series that expands the length of the extended passageway, one cannot help but begin to wander through the piece. Realizing that this was not of ordinary instinctual habit, but rather the works clever engineering and a latent dynamism forcing one to engage in progressive steps – one navigates on. It is these steps that create a consecutive narrative allowing both for closer inspection of the black metal form at that moment, as well as a response to the structure in fluid motion.

 This sense of flow may be attributed to the thin aluminum flux metal the triangles are made of—appearing at points as if floating—especially in opposition to the heavy classical columns and marble of their surroundings. However, this contrast is complicated by the work’s construction: rigid shapes that are neither an obvious opposition to the space, nor a responsive organic molding to the building’s architecture. Instead Rothschild has chosen a position in the middle. Jutting triangular corners are suspended in space; some points appear falling, and others climb the momentous columns, whilst some embrace and support, finally lightly tapping the ground as if pausing for an instant before moving to the next act. The rigid triangles contrast their weightless materiality, letting the sculpture flow, as if each triangular segment has grown from the last like an ordered and controlled, yet growing vine.  It is this middle position of being both structured and vibrant, that places us in a position of discomfort and wonder. 

 Born in Dublin in 1971, Rothschild went on to complete her BA at the University of Ulster in Belfast, after which she completed her MA at the prestigious Goldsmiths College in London, where she lives and works. Throughout her career, Rothschild has built a body of work that shows her vastly adept at using the language of sculpture. Cold Corners is her largest work to date and through both its scale and its use of everyday material, Rothschild has created a powerful presence in its contrast. Too fiercely independent to be site-specific, Cold Corners is a fascinating and complex experience born from being an innate oxymoron.

Claire Breukel: Project Coordinator PUMAVision and Curator PUMA.Creative