Utilising Magnetism
So, as I along with the team at the London gallery were readying the space for the opening of 2025 at the wonderful Bluerider ART in Mayfair, we were presented with a problem. We were staging the first solo show in the United Kingdom of the American artist Carol Prusa’s artwork, Strange Attractors, which meant we were displaying a new range of artwork that required a decidedly different display.
These works consisted of exquisite silverpoint illustrations coupled with acrylic paintings on primed paper. The skill with which Prusa executed the silverpoint illustrations enabled her to create cosmic and astronomical subjects with such intricate and almost celestial patterns that the resulting artwork borders on the ethereal or even the surrealistic in its scope and depth. The catch with all this was that Carol and our director felt that these delicate artworks needed to be handled in such a way as to prevent them being framed in the conventional manner or even piercing them with mounting holes of any kind, no matter how minuscule in dimension and size.
The answer, when it came, was almost deceptively simple: magnetism. We chose to attach magnet strips that would be hidden on the reverse side of each work, so that the pieces themselves would remain unchanged. Small round magnets would then be placed along the edges of the artworks so that they seemed to float against the wall in an almost supernatural way.
The aesthetic effect surpassed our anticipations. The metallic part of the magnetic system added an unexpected harmony with the silverpoint medium itself, as both of them possess this cool and reflective quality which relates to precision and craftsmanship.
What amazed me specifically within the installation procedure was how the installation itself appeared to perfectly capture the theme of the exhibition. Strange Attractors was focused upon the forces at play within the energy of humanity and the universe as a whole, and the exhibition we were working within utilised real magnetic forces to hold suspended artwork related to the very themes of attraction, repulsion, and the unseen forces of the universe.
