
Grenville Davey: Well
Art Outdoors /Grenville Davey: Well
Well is based on the shape of a fizzy drinks can. Everyday, mundane things that have been dramatically scaled up to many times their original size, the cans feel at once familiar and unusual. This is emphasised by the fact that the expected colourful visual branding normally paired with the form isn’t present. In other respects the cans echo the objects on which they were based, and the way they have been crushed was carefully choreographed to make it appear that hard steel has been squashed in the same way that a thin aluminium drinks can would be, before being cast aside.
Pairs of related items, as in these two can forms, often feature in Davey’s work, exploring similarity and difference. Well was made the year after the artist won the Turner Prize.

You might also like
- Art Outdoors
Anthony Caro: Dream City
- Art Outdoors
Joao Vasco Paiva: Standard Kitchen
For Standard Kitchen, Vasco Paiva collaborated with artisans in East Bali. Together, they used the traditional method of carving Batu Candi, a lava stone often used for building temples and shrines. The stone was shaped to create a life-sized replica of a modular kitchen to consider the processes and spaces that are integral to everyday life. - Art Outdoors
Sean Scully: Wall Dale Cubed
Made for YSP, Wall Dale Cubed uses 1000 tonnes of Yorkshire stone from a local quarry and was constructed over many weeks. Importantly to the artist, this colossal work is built in the same way throughout, which connects to ancient stone walls in Ireland, so that ‘when looking at the outside of the block, one can feel the inside without being able to see it’. - Art Outdoors
Ursula von Rydingsvard: Damski Czepek
Damski Czepek translates as ‘lady’s bonnet’, and has a central hood-like form, with snaking ribbons extending out into the landscape. The shape welcomes you in and envelopes you, and echoes some of the eighteenth-century follies across the estate, such as the Shell Grotto.