Artist:
Simon Starling (born 1967 in Epsom, England; lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark).
Materials:
Mixed media.
Description:
“Three White Desks, 2008–2009, was inspired by the story of a desk created by Francis Bacon in 1928 for the Australian writer Patrick White. After selling the furniture in 1947, White commissioned a copy of the desk based on a photograph but was unhappy with the result. Replicating this system, Starling commissioned three cabinetmakers in three different cities—Berlin, Sydney, and London—to make reproductions of the desk. The first was based on a vintage black-and-white photograph. The next two were created using a low-res image from the previous desk copy. Each replica is far from the original: They all vary in dimension and color. Repetition is characterized here by profound difference and distance, as well as a fertile source of humor and irony. Starling, with his peculiar ability to connect the dots of a constellation of historical data in elusive investigations, brings to light invisible yet meaningful material narratives.”
—Claudia Arozqueta, Critick’s Pick, “Simon Starling: In Speculum,” Artforum (April 2014).
“Often taking examples of early modernist design as his starting point, Starling puts them through a process of transformation, relocation or manipulation, drawing out convoluted narratives about their fabrication and the network of relationships they embody. His projects are characterized by a poetic, yet futile, circularity and a large investment of labor. Three White Desks 2008-09 takes as its starting point a desk designed by Francis Bacon for Australian writer, Patrick White, during a stint working as a furniture designer in the early 1930s. Returning without it to Australia in 1947, White commissioned a joiner in Sydney to recreate it from a photograph but was never satisfied with the result. In a process akin to Chinese whispers, Starling commissioned three cabinet makers in three cities relevant to the story to build replicas of the desk, working with only a single image. A high-resolution scan of a vintage black-and-white photograph of the original desk was first given to a Berlin-based cabinet maker, a city in which Bacon first came into contact with avant-garde design. On completion of the desk, it was photographed and the image sent to a cabinet maker in Sydney, the process repeated and an image returned to London where it was recreated a third time. By using a story of nostalgia, longing, and dispersal, Starling investigates the relationship between contemporary modes of image transmission and issues of technology, craft, translation and the assimilation of the avant-garde into the mainstream.”
—”Tate Triennial 2009: Altermodern—Simon Starling,” Tate website, February 3, 2009.
