Nina Canell’s sculptures are anything but static or finished. Instead, they explore the dynamic and inexhaustible potential of the materials from which they are made. Canell’s visual world consists of combinations of concrete objects and immaterial substances, which tend to be altered by unseen energetic forces. Her sculptures change colour, evolve and/or become mobile under the influence of processes such as heating, evaporation, electrical impulses, magnetism and exposure to fluctuations in temperature or moisture. Canell’s work is often described as a kind of contemporary alchemy. Aesthetically, it corresponds with Arte Povera, Minimalism, and the pseudo-scientific pleasure in experimentation taken by artists such as Marcel Duchamp.
