Displayed on the foundation’s terrace throughout the months of winter, Nathaniel Rackowe’s large-scale urban shed structure is installed, seemingly mid-explosion, upside-down, its contours wrenched apart, exposing its illuminated interior. The wooden shed, painted with black bitumen, emanates an eerie acid-yellow glow from the white strip-lighting inside it reflecting off the painted walls of its interior. The structure appears to be exploding, as if it is being split apart by the force of the light within it. Rackowe says, ‘I thought it would be interesting to take the humble shed and elevate it so it can rise up and challenge architecture and also deconstruct it to the point where you are forced to re-read it.’ Although a direct reference to the ubiquity of garden sheds throughout the suburbs of London, the work has an equally universal impact in its depiction of such a familiar, domestic structure.

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Inspired by constructivist and deconstructivist artists such as Vladimir Tatlin, Richard Serra, and Gordon Matta-Clark, Rackowe’s works also pay particular homage to the artists Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. Similarly, Rackowe uses mass-produced industrial materials together with the element of light to create contemporary monuments that enliven our urban reality.

https://www.theculturediary.com/events/nathaniel-rackowe-black-shed-expanded-parasol-unit-london (28.02.2022)