‘Into the Cryptosphere’ with Simeon Nelson by Rebecca Geldard

by pmaxwell, 14 January 2008

Cactal (architectural epiphyte #8) 7 x 12 x 2 meters Commission for The Institute of Digital Innovation, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK

It seems odd that I haven’t heard of Simeon Nelson before we meet at his studio in December. The fact that he hails from Australia is no excuse, considering he has been living in London for the past six years and produced some significant public sculpture projects in the UK in 2007 (a Foster building intervention at Spitalfields, London, ‘Cactal’ at Teesside University, Middlesbrough). In addition, several Nelson works were selected for interesting East End group shows this year such as ‘Baroque My World’ at Transition and ‘Iota’ at Cell. In the end I forgive myself the oversight and put it down to Nelson’s possible labelling as a public artist – a practice rarely given credence in the national press or international art magazines and that continues to suffer by association with uninspired high-profile initiatives such as London’s Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth project.

Cactal (architectural epiphyte #8) 7 x 12 x 2 meters Commission for The Institute of Digital Innovation, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK

There is something guilt inducing about an interesting studio visit – a latent sense of being the cuckoo in someone else’s carefully constructed intellectual nest. Nelson’s ship-shape hub of industry off the Hackney Road inspires similar response being as it is wall to wall with potential ideas for gallery and public projects. “This”, he says, pointing with a superfluous bit of sculpture at a feathery linear scribble pinned to the wall, “is what happens in a rat’s brain when it squeals”. It’s curiously similar to a neighbouring image of the UK’s river systems. After a fruitful, if chaotic, discussion about what it is he does and his current preoccupation with the history of mapping paradise, I start to feel like a remote wireless user illegally joining an alien network.

Diaspora/Coalescence plywood, paint
intervention into 'the street' colonnade of Foster and Partners Bishops Square building, Spitalfields, London
curated by Emma Russell and Rachel Dickson, Spitalfields Public Art Programme Phase Two, London

Nelson has long been fascinated with the representational possibilities of mapping methods throughout history and the curious correlations that emerge between different worldly systems. It’s easy to over formalise Nelson’s working practices given his obvious hunger for theory. He assures me, however, that the process is a much more whimsical combination of research and intuitive periods of material play. The data he collates, from varying sources, are incorporated into objects that question the conventions upon which we rely to describe the world and our multi-dimensional relationship to it. Nelson categorises this very complex set of mapable territories within different ‘spheres’, citing late French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the ‘mechanosphere’ as describing all possible relationships between man-made technology and biology; Teilhard de Chardin’s ‘noosphere’ as that which relates to human thought and the ‘biosphere’ as interpreted by British scientist James Lovelock to cover the set of interactions between living organisms and their environment.

Arachne 2007, plywood, wood dye, 300cm x 190 cm x 14 cm

Unsurprisingly, given that he is currently the first artist to undertake a residency with the Royal Geographical Society, maps are very much order of the day when we meet. Nelson’s studio is papered with examples of medieval and post-empirical study into the geography of real and ideological places, biological and cultural processes. The initiative was set up by UK arts promoter, Parabola Trust, and will culminate with a solo exhibition of Nelson’s ‘findings’ in the society’s glass, box-like exhibition venue in March. Nelson’s title for the project, ‘Cryptosphere’, can be defined as the extraordinarily biodiverse layer of life on the rainforest floor, which he interprets here as: “the sum of all withheld and hidden information in a given system”.

Efflorescence (architectural epiphyte # 9) - integrated multi-component sculpture, M on Mary Building, Brisbane, Australia. 2007 Materials: powdercoated steel,
M16 hexagonal bolts, Dimensions: 12 meters high x 7 meters wide x 2 meters deep

A working model on the table provides some clues as to the artist’s sculptural intentions for the space: decorative ebony struts (informed by Dantean maps of earthly paradise, amongst other scientific and theological source material) have been constructed to create a menacing Baroque grid. Aesthetically, it appears to illustrate the point of intersection between ornamentation and function, though Nelson refers, with a smile, to this potential structure as “ultra relativist” in the sense that it is built from motley references to the major world belief systems. Though understandably wary of overtly political or countercultural suggestion, he appears to like the idea of something unified emerging from such oppositional vantage points.

Demonology, plywood, dye, 230 x 180 x 7 cms, 2006

The ideas that inform Nelson’s works may be hard to grasp but his physical manifestations are anything but ephemeral or difficult to engage with. Often large in size, and rather playful, they appear like the scaled up design objects of a new world order. Nelson’s gravitation towards the monumental has required the expertise of structural engineers such as ARUP (who helped him to realise his ‘digital ivy’ commission ‘Cactal’ that appears to creep up one wall of the Institute for Digital Innovation, Middlesbrough) and he now employs an assistant to navigate the logistical and practical demands of these physically ambitious projects. In the coming year Nelson will expand his portfolio of Australian public art commissions with two major projects in Melbourne.

Observing Nelson and his team (which currently includes an industrious geography undergraduate who is observing the artist’s every move in an attempt, perhaps, to make sense of this curious collision between scientific and creative agendas) it’s unlikely their current home will be able to house their ever-expanding plans for much longer. As we discuss the difficult relationship between art and academia it becomes clear that Nelson’s commitment to this particular line of enquiry is strong enough to steer him through the inevitable anxiety of being ‘qualified’ to navigate other fields of study. He is not conceited enough to suggest that artists have a totally unique perspective on other territories but neither does he seem willing to impose theoretical limits or prescribe what it is he ‘should’ be dealing with. Having witnessed Nelson’s compact conceptual distillery, it seems unlikely he’ll ever be corralled by protocol on either side of the creative fence.

Parabola Trust
Simeon Nelson