About the work

With beads and wool and wind there could be even more felicity here. Having knotted and strung contentedly, it was mid-afternoon when Robert Rauschenberg noticed the minutes had flown into the trees and vanished. Putting all his well wishes in a bag he returned to lace each in its place. He waited for the wind, but it did not join him.

With a fixedly disinterested gaze, the mute stone bust of an ancient Roman looked on. Robert hung an agglomeration of beads and horse hair over its forever stilled curls, took a photo, kissed the deep past’s cool cheek and walked off. 

The wishes hung in the same stilled time until a passer-by stopped to place some crostini on the stone figure’s head. A micro storm of husk, lust and dis-synchronous wing gusts ensued as the birds descended. Once again, a playful and startling new composition.

Date and country of birth

1976, GB

About the artist

Born 1976 London, Corin Sworn lives and works in Glasgow. Graduated from University of British Columbia (1999); Central Saint Martins, London (2002); and The Glasgow School of Art (2009).

Her works are held in public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; McManus Galleries, Dundee; Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; University of British Columbia, Vancouver; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; and Colecção Madeira Corporate Services, Portugal.

Selected solo exhibitions include Museum of the Himalayas, Shanghai (2019); Edinburgh Arts Festival, Edinburgh (2019); WORK HOUSE, Koppe Astner, Glasgow (2018); The Time of the Foxes, Galeria Arsenał, Białystok (2016); The Coat, screening, ICA, London (2016); La Giubba, Natalia Hug, Cologne (2015); Vibrant Matter, Langen Foundation, Neuss (2014); The Rag Papers, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2013); An Endless Renovation, Tate Britain, London (2011); and The Lens Prism, Tramway, Glasgow (2010). Selected group exhibitions include How to Drift, Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2017); A Synchronology: The Contemporary And Other Times, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (2017); You Imagine What You Desire, 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); 21 REVOLUTIONS: TWO DECADES OF CHANGING MINDS, Intermedia, Glasgow (2012); Phantasmagoria, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver (2012); Hors Pistes 2011, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); and Morality, Act 5: Power Alone, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2010).

Awards include being shortlisted for the Margaret Tait Award (2018); receiving the Leverhulme Prize (2015); and the MaxMara Art Prize for Women, London (2014).