I'm trying to do something radically different in a beautiful comfortable way.''


Over the past decade, the borders between artistic techniques have become increasingly amorphous: some of the most pertinent ideas have emerged from the productive cross-pollination between different disciplines, genres, cultures and media. Los Angeles artist Jorge Pardo skilfully traverses the ambiguous territory between art, architecture and design to create installations that defy easy categorisation. He has created relaxing environments that include decorative artefacts and home furnishings designed or selected by himself, resulting in an art that is as enjoyable to look as it is to use.


In striving for a convergence of art, lifestyle and entertainment, Pardo liberally explores and indulges in the formal, stylistic and ideological aberrations of the recent past - a period of legendary bad taste and kitsch but also of bold, integrative Utopian concepts. Pardo skilfully plays with art-historical orthodoxies and transcends popular stereotypes of abstract art and public sculpture through his infectious and engaging use of colour, form and movement in space. In his sculptural works, Pardo redefines the conventional notion of 'public sculpture'.


Penelope is Pardo's largest permanent outdoor public sculpture to date. The work is located in Wolstenholme Square in the Ropewalks District of central Liverpool, an area where, in past centuries, the long ropes of ships were laid out in the streets. Although relatively unassuming during the daytime, Wolstenholme Square is home to Nation - formerly the venue for Liverpool's famous club Cream - and fills up with hundreds of revellers at night. Penelope consists often undulating steel tentacles terminating in large illuminated Plexiglas spheres that rise from the central island above the existing canopy of trees. The majority of the spheres occupy the central area while a few jump out above the street to reach a height of almost ten metres. On the ground, a low serpentine bench covered in multi-coloured tiles weaves its way around the trees to correspond with the luminous colours of the tubes and spheres. To evoke the use of tiles in Portugal, Spain or South America, Pardo often transposes a decorative building material confined in northern countries to indoor space into the open.


Penelope thus introduces a Mediterranean element and encourages the use of Wolstenholme Square as a space for promenading, rest and relaxation.


Penelope refers to Homer's Odyssey, in which Ulysses' wife faithfully awaited her lost husband's return from the Trojan War. The story of Penelope speaks directly to Liverpool's history as a port. Penelope continued to put off her numerous suitors by saying she had to finish weaving a robe, and unravelling the day's work each night. So the story is both about conjugal faithfulness and about pursuit and thwarted desire, appropriate to the sculpture's location in a square swarming with crowds of revellers at night. The swirling and lively lines in space echo Penelope's weaving and unravelling, as well as providing a powerful visualisation of the rhythmic interweaving of sound to create music. Finally, the twisting steel stems are a reminder that the Rope Walks area takes its name from the process of plaiting ships' ropes by laying them out in the street.
Christoph Crunenberg

1 Kate Bush, 'Design for Life', Frieze, no. 36, September/October 1997, p. 54.

[LESS]
I'm trying to do something radically different in a beautiful comfortable way.''


Over the past decade, the borders between artistic techniques have become increasingly amorphous: some of the most pertinent ideas have emerged from the productive cross-pollination between different disciplines, genres, cultures and media. Los Angeles artist Jorge Pardo skilfully traverses the ambiguous territory between art, architecture and design to create installations that defy easy categorisation. He has created relaxing environments that include decorative artefacts and home furnishings designed or selected by himself, resulting in an art that is as enjoyable to look as it is to use.


In striving for a convergence of art, lifestyle and entertainment, Pardo liberally explores and indulges in the formal, stylistic and ideological aberrations of the recent past - a period of legendary bad taste and kitsch but also of bold, integrative Utopian concepts. Pardo skilfully plays with art-historical orthodoxies and transcends popular stereotypes of abstract art and public sculpture through his infectious and engaging use of colour, form and movement in space. In his sculptural works, Pardo redefines the conventional notion of 'public sculpture'.


Penelope is Pardo's largest permanent outdoor public sculpture to date. The work is located in Wolstenholme Square in the Ropewalks District of central Liverpool, an area where, in past centuries, the long ropes of ships were laid out in the streets. Although relatively unassuming during the daytime, Wolstenholme Square is home to Nation - formerly the venue for Liverpool's famous club Cream - and fills up with hundreds of revellers at night. Penelope consists often undulating steel tentacles terminating in large illuminated Plexiglas spheres that rise from the central island above the existing canopy of trees. The majority of the spheres occupy the central area while a few jump out above the street to reach a height of almost ten metres. On the ground, a low serpentine bench covered in multi-coloured tiles weaves its way around the trees to correspond with the luminous colours of the tubes and spheres. To evoke the use of tiles in Portugal, Spain or South America, Pardo often transposes a decorative building material confined in northern countries to indoor space into the open.


Penelope thus introduces a Mediterranean element and encourages the use of Wolstenholme Square as a space for promenading, rest and relaxation.


Penelope refers to Homer's Odyssey, in which Ulysses' wife faithfully awaited her lost husband's return from the Trojan War. The story of Penelope speaks directly to Liverpool's history as a port. Penelope continued to put off her numerous suitors by saying she had to finish weaving a robe, and unravelling the day's work each night. So the story is both about conjugal faithfulness and about pursuit and thwarted desire, appropriate to the sculpture's location in a square swarming with crowds of revellers at night. The swirling and lively lines in space echo Penelope's weaving and unravelling, as well as providing a powerful visualisation of the rhythmic interweaving of sound to create music. Finally, the twisting steel stems are a reminder that the Rope Walks area takes its name from the process of plaiting ships' ropes by laying them out in the street.
Christoph Crunenberg

1 Kate Bush, 'Design for Life', Frieze, no. 36, September/October 1997, p. 54.

PROJECT CREDITS:

Courtesy Jorge Pardo Studios Inc., Los Angeles and neugerriemschneider, Berlin


Commissioned by The Liverpool Rope Walks Partnership


With thanks to: Brian Armbruster, Dave Deany, Mark McManus, Jorge Pardo, Clancy Pearson, Phil Wagner and Leo Trebels at Jorge Pardo Sculpture Inc., Los Angeles.


Thanks also to: Phil Ross, BDP, Liverpool; Friedrich Petzel, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York; Beatrice Fraenkel, Liverpool Ropewalks Partnership, Liverpool; Tim Neuger and Susanne Kuppers, neugerriemschneider, Berlin.

[LESS]
PROJECT CREDITS:

Courtesy Jorge Pardo Studios Inc., Los Angeles and neugerriemschneider, Berlin


Commissioned by The Liverpool Rope Walks Partnership


With thanks to: Brian Armbruster, Dave Deany, Mark McManus, Jorge Pardo, Clancy Pearson, Phil Wagner and Leo Trebels at Jorge Pardo Sculpture Inc., Los Angeles.


Thanks also to: Phil Ross, BDP, Liverpool; Friedrich Petzel, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York; Beatrice Fraenkel, Liverpool Ropewalks Partnership, Liverpool; Tim Neuger and Susanne Kuppers, neugerriemschneider, Berlin.