Details

Object type

sculpture

Title

Old Money

Artist/Maker

James Rigler maker

Place Associated

Scotland, Glasgow (place made)

Date

2020

Materials

Earthenware ceramic elements (fired 1050 - 1150C) using Scarva Earthstone Smooth-Textured Crank; garnet shellac’d surface over-laid with imitation gold (brass) leaf, distressed and lacquered. Mounted on MDF/ply/timber/perspex shelf and secured with wooden and steel dowels. Wall behind the work painted in emulsion paint, colour-matched to imitate ‘Paean Black’ Farrow & Ball paint

Description

A metal leafed ceramic sculpture arranged on a shelf and composed of 17 geometric ceramic forms that include spheres, cones, sausage shapes and reference architectural details or everyday objects. These are placed like an architectural frieze on a shelf in front of a painted back wall.

“My work attempts to reveal the overlooked languages of our buildings and spaces to destabilise the power that they continue to exert. Combining a sense of monumentality with a sense of the ridiculous, my sculptures attempt to bridge the gap between the everyday things that populate our lives and the extraordinary, monumental forms of his-toric architecture.”

James Rigler 2020

Old Money by James Rigler was acquired for Glasgow Museums by the Contemporary Art Society through the Jackson Tang Ceramics Award 2020. Designed to support a major acquisition of ceramic work for a museum, the award is open to artists whose primary material is ceramic, as well as those who only employ the process and material occasionally.

The Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) is Glasgow Museums’ modern and contemporary art museum and is housed in Glasgow’s former Royal Exchange. This building was once the economic heart of merchant trade with founding members including enslavers like James Ewing of Strathleven. It was at other points - the private mansion of a tobacco and sugar merchant William Cunninghame - with his Palladian mansion built on profits from the exploited labour of enslaved Africans, and a public library. Considering this complex history and the 25th anniversary of the museum, James Rigler was invited to work on a new commission initially for display in GoMA for the Jackson Tang Ceramics Award. Rigler has a renowned international profile for his bold, architecturally-inspired ceramics. Based in Glasgow, he has established a research-led practice that uses a site-responsive approach to develop monumental installations, with a particular emphasis on the ongoing influence of historical, architectural and decorative styles.

“ Buildings like the Royal Exchange use an arsenal of decorative and architectural details to influence how we access them and respond to them. They celebrate a particular historical narrative and a particular type of historic figure, upholding a hierarchy of place that implies a hierarchy of inhabitants. It is vital that we appreciate the beauty and skilled craftsmanship of such places without also losing sight of the stories of exploitation, violence and cruelty that helped generate them.”

James Rigler 2020

Old Money responds to the decoration of the GoMA building and encourages a renewed interrogation of its history. Taking the form of a new frieze for the interior of the Royal Exchange, it is formed of two elements: A plain shelf structure, carefully tailored to the simple circulation space of the 1996 redevelopment, which supports an informally arranged collection of metal-leafed ceramic forms. The title - Old Money - refers both to the history of the building and the entrenched privilege it represents, as well as reminding us that the meaning and value of coins is, like architectural styles, socially constructed, and can evaporate with changing times.

Credit Line/Donor

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society through the Jackson Tang Ceramics Award, 2020/21

ID Number

ICE.2021.2

Location

In storage