Made for Frieze London to coincide with the recent launch of the public commission Beacons, this new wall-based work, entitled Patterns of Absence (E), continues the artist’s exploration of optics and visual perception. Beacons comprises four monumental disks that stand atop the Ramsgate cliffs, casting a colourful semaphoric message of hope far out to sea. The optic potency of the works is further enhanced by the cranking of a handle that turns each pairs of perforated disks. The movement of these against each other and the sky creates optic interference and so further activates receptors in the eye, which enhances the ability to send the cryptic message – the word ‘home’ written in semaphore, chosen by local school children – even further out to sea.

In celebration of this community-based commission, Shawcross has created works that use the same colours as the semaphoric beacon but are veiled behind a blue that references the sea. They are akin to stained glass windows, which are activated by the light of the sun behind them. Composed of two counter-rotating discs, each is peppered with a series of complex layers of perforations. Their incremental counter rotation allows light to permeate through the voids within their surfaces, producing an effect that triggers associations reminiscent of those experienced in nature, such as the shifting light upon the sea, the twisting motion of a vortex, or a murmuration of starlings.

About the artist

Conrad Shawcross, RA, was born in 1977 in London, where he currently lives and works. Current projects include Pioneering Places, a major public art work for Ramsgate Royal Harbour. Recent exhibitions and commissions include Escalations, a solo exhibition at Château La Coste, Provence, France, where the artist’s monumental new commission Schism (Château La Coste) was unveiled, and an exhibition to mark the 800th anniversary of Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, UK. Previous solo exhibitions have been staged at institutions including Yorkshire Sculpture International, Dean Clough, Halifax, UK (2019); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (2018); the New Art Centre, Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, UK (2015); ARTMIA Foundation, Beijing, China (2014); MUDAM, Luxembourg (2012); Science Museum, London, UK (2011– 2012); Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2011); and Oxford Science Park, UK (2010). His works are held in permanent collections including: Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; British Council, UK; The Hiscox Collection, UK; MUDAM Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Museum of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania; Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain; The Ovitz Family Collection, California, USA; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; The David Ross Collection, UK; The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; Tate, UK; Vervoordt Collection, Antwerp, Belgium; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; The Extraordinary Collection, Coutts, UK; Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China.