Outlines Roughly the Size of a Suit
Two Person show with Luke Burton, curated by William GustafssonUnion Gallery, London | February 2019
For Seaward, the architectural is located in the material qualities of his cast panels through his use of Terrazzo. Developed in eighteenth century Venice, the decorative flooring method of Terrazzo uses varied aggregates that are held within a cement binder before the surface is ground down and polished. Once the height of luxury, the technique's lineage now adorns the halls of train stations, shopping malls and other quotidian high-footfall locations. Seaward reimagines this technique by reducing its scale and transforming its function. This produces a shift from the expansive field of architectural flooring to the more autonomous, intimate quality of painting.
Ornament and its relationship to pattern have an important role in the work of both asrtists. Ornament is used as abstract pattern but also exists in relation to a field of pictorial symbols and allusions. Often the artists will respectively find an ornamental form, either directly quoted from contemporary or historical source material, or imagined from an existing amalgam of archetypes. They share an interest in the mutability of these figures; the question of their traceability within history, like an etymology of form, but also their empty, ubiquitous nature. Like free-floating extant signs, they are ready for use, but what use?
Rope2018
cast concrete panel with inlaid acrylic and polar marble terrazzo
45 x 35 cm.
Hands and Chaincast concrete panel with inlaid acrylic and cement chip terrazzo
45 x 35 cm.
Mercedes and Solidscast concrete panel with inlaid acrylic and cement chip terrazzo
45 x 35 cm.
Matisse Three Timescast concrete panel with inlaid acrylic and polar marble terrazzo
45 x 35 cm.
Atlantic Salmon2018
cast concrete panel with inlaid acrylic and polar marble terrazzo.
23.5 x 16 cm
Common Flaxcast concrete panel with inlaid acrylic and cement chip terrazzo
23.5 x 16 cm
