Nick Hornby (b. 1980, London) is one of the leading sculptors of his
generation in Britain today, creating works on both intimate and
monumental scales, and at the intersection of art history and
contemporary technology. Hornby's practice uses software that allows him
to extract, alter, and hybridize sculptures from art history into new
works made from marble, steel, bronze, resin, wood, and composite
materials. It could be said that Hornby has opened up a new sculptural
language for the twenty-first century.
This, his first major monograph, features approximately 175 images, many
of which are reproduced here for the first time or have been
commissioned for the publication. Alongside documentation of works
presented in galleries and outdoor spaces are production images taken in
the studio and fabrication workshops. Hornby's practice is here divided
into four categories: Intersections, Extrusions, Hydrographics, and
Collaborations.
A foreword by Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,
offers insight into Hornby's internal and external relationship with
sculpture, considering the links between two and three dimensions,
abstraction and representation, the 'real' and the digital.
Editor Matt Price's introduction takes readers on a whistlestop tour of
the artist's oeuvre, from his early family life and studies at Chelsea
and The Slade in London and the Art Institute of Chicago, to his latest
major exhibitions and commissions. Price covers a range of significant
aspects such as the importance of music and sound, which were key
elements of Hornby's early work, to sculptures made in collaboration
with others, and recent pieces combining art history with technology in
their design and fabrication.
An essay by Dr Hannah Higham, Senior Curator of Collections and Research
at the Henry Moore Foundation, provides the most substantial piece of
critical writing on Hornby's work to date, drawing out specific
touchstones in the history of art and discussing the relationship
between the work and time. Higham further explores the ways that the
motion and position of the viewer alter the experience of the
sculptures, with new angles revealing fresh artistic inspirations from
Hans Arp or Elizabeth Frink to ideas from communities Hornby has worked
with and other contemporary artists with whom he has collaborated.
An interview with Dr Helen Pheby, Associate Director, Programme, at
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, probes the artist further about his cultural
and theoretical inspirations, methods, materials, and ideologies,
including his views on collaboration, the public nature of art and its
accessibility. Their conversation provides an insight into the thinking
of the artist at a crucial stage in his career.
The monograph brings together works spanning Hornby's career for the
first time. It follows Hornby's first institutional solo exhibition at
MOSTYN, Wales, and his first permanent outdoor sculptural commission for
Harlow Science Park in Essex, UK.
The publication is edited by Matt Price, designed by Herman Lelie,
printed by EBS, Verona, and published by Anomie, London.
