TIM SHAW

LA CORRIDA - DREAMS IN RED
1997-1999

The installation depicts a world that rages with an explosive knife-edge energy, passion and grace. Elements of beauty, sensuality and brutality are merged together. Bulls charge across the arena, figures dance, turn and gesture as if driven by an ever- present awareness of mortality. Small wax and resin toreadors, dancers, bulls and horses are placed upon a three-metre wide drum shaped table, which is covered with a thin layer of red pigment. The figures are illuminated by ultra- violet and fibre-optic lighting, which cast shadows onto the surrounding walls. Images repeatedly appear and fade into darkness to the sound of flamenco, merged with voices edited from a radio.

The work is inspired by memorable events that occurred in 1996 during a three months residency in Andalucia, Spain, courtesy of The Delfina Foundation. One of those experiences happened on the evening of Good Friday. “I stumbled into a packed square in Seville and saw for the first time a carved wooden effigy of the Virgin Mary who sat in her ship of lights. From the shadowy balcony above, an old woman sang a Saeta, her voice gripped the crowd who stood in silence as the moon turned red.”

VIDEO

La Corrida - Dreams in Red