Axiom

Conrad Shawcross (1977 - )

Wooden sculpture with steel fixings

2009

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Ministry of Justice, 102 Petty France

    Axiom, a work by Conrad Shawcross, was one of four works that were specially commissioned by the Government Art Collection in 2008, for the newly-refurbished Ministry of Justice building in central London. Works by Martin Boyce, Lothar Götz and Nathaniel Rackowe were also commissioned for the building.

    Axiom is a complex, spiraling wooden structure made from a stack of tetrahedrons rising up from the lower ground floor of the atrium of the building to tower above surrounding structures. Shawcross makes large-scale sculptures containing ideas and allusions drawn from science and cosmology that are intended to inspire and intrigue the viewer. Often made from wood and metal, his intricate, well-crafted constructions sometimes incorporate moving parts, which generally have no practical function. Emanating majesty and banality in equal measure, Shawcross's tower is a monument to uncertainty and infinite possibility.

    Conrad Shawcross was born in London in 1977. He studied at Ruskin College, Oxford, and at the Slade School of Art in London. He had solo exhibitions in both Munich and Spain in 2004. In 2007, he won a major commission at the Unilever headquarters in Blackfriars. In 2009, he became an international fellow at Location One in New York and was the London Science Museum's Centenary Artist in Residence.

  • About the artist
    Conrad Shawcross was born in London in 1977. He obtained a BA in Fine Art from Ruskin College, Oxford in 1999 and completed an MA at the Slade School of Art in London in 2001. His solo exhibition The Nervous Systems was shown at Entwistle gallery, London in 2003. He had a solo exhibition in both Munich and Spain in 2004 and at Victoria Miro, London, in 2006. Shawcross has work in the forthcoming exhibition at Lismore Castle Arts in Ireland and at the Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in France. In 2007 he had major commissions at the Unilever headquarters in Blackfriars and Selfridges, Oxford Street in London.
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    abstract
  • Details
    Title
    Axiom
    Date
    2009
    Medium
    Wooden sculpture with steel fixings
    Dimensions
    height: 1346.00 cm, width: 255.90 cm, depth: 255.90 cm
    Acquisition
    Commissioned for the Ministry of Justice, London, September 2008; completed February 2009
    Provenance
    the artist (commission)
    GAC number
    18252