Challenge of the Unknown

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Book Spheres, a sculptural work by Susan MacWilliam, imagines the book as a telepathic device that transmits information from writer to reader. In creating each sphere, the artist utilizes covers from books, mostly dating from the 1960s, about parapsychology (‘the study of mental abilities, such as knowing the future or telepathy, that seem to go against or be outside the known laws of nature and science’ - definition from ‘Cambridge University Dictionary’). MacWilliam has scanned and cut out the book covers by hand. The publications derive from the artist’s own book collection or were titles that she studied in major specialist research centres in North America and the UK.

Susan MacWilliam (born 1969) represented Northern Ireland at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Susan is a lecturer in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Her video works are held in the British Library Sound Archive. Working with video, photography and installation, MacWilliam explores obscure and overlooked histories and considers perceptual phenomena and the world of the paranormal and supersensory.

Places

Subjects

Materials & Techniques

plastic, paper (as artists material), ink, sculpture (as object name)

Artist

Susan MacWilliam (1969 - )

Title

Challenge of the Unknown

Series Title

Book Spheres

Date

2013-2014

Medium

paper, ink, plastic

Dimensions

diameter: 15.0 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist as part of the Northern Ireland Centenary, March 2021

Provenance

The artist; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 31 March 2021

GAC number

19000