Icon Series, 2017. Left to Right: Untitled (Icon 1), Untitled (Icon 5), Untitled (Icon 3), Untitled (Icon 4), Untitled (Icon 2)
Untitled (Icon 1), 2017
Photo: Ken Adlard
Installation view, Untitled (Icon 3), 2017, Numen (Shifting Votive Three), 2016 for ‘Thoughts Unseen’, Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Photo: Ken Adlard
Untitled (Icon), 2017
24ct gold leafed aluminium composite
Italian slate base on quartzite plinth
Head: 31 x 15 x 21cm, Base 3.5 x 17 x 17 cm,
Plinth: 110 x 23 x 23
Constantly experimenting with materials and technologies, for the Untitled (Icon) series Price has adopted two techniques for the first time: gilding, and 3D modelling. The use of 24 carat gold leaf has a powerful cultural resonance, as a technique which dates back to Ancient Egypt and continues to signify luxury, splendour and exultation. The subjects depicted in these gilded sculptures, placed upon quartzite plinths in a classical style, are cast as ‘icons’ of a modern age, despite their anonymous, ‘untitled’ identities.
Price subtly subverts the viewer’s expectations, reframing the image and associations of black men in contemporary society and in art. This sense of subversion is heightened by the knowledge that these heads were sculpted using cutting-edge 3D modelling techniques, a digital amalgamation of features with no rooting in reality. We are led to wonder whether the individual’s ‘true’ identity really exists, amidst or beneath the layers of constructed presentation and conditioned perception.