I stumbled upon Alastair Mackie's sculptural pieces a few weeks ago through All Visual Arts' site. Immediately taken with Alastair's intense and meticulous work, I asked him to share a few images and descriptions of his haunting pieces with us, and a little bit about himself and his upcoming shows:
Untitled
(sphere), 2009 (above and below)
Mouse skulls, wood, glass.
40cm x 35cm x 35cm
Having swallowed its prey whole, the owls digestive system will extract any nutrition. The indigestible parts are then regurgitated as a compressed pellet. From these the skulls are extracted and the sculpture is built.
Untitled, 2000 - 2008 (above)
Mouse skull sculpture re-united with its place of origin.
Untitled (+/-), 2009 (above and below)
Mouse skeletons, mouse fur, and other mixed media Dimensions variable.Over a period of one year barn owl pellets have been collected and processed in to their raw components of mouse fur and bone. The fur has been spun in to yarn and, with the use of a loom, the yarn has been woven in to a sheet of fabric. The skeletons have been left as a heap, the size of which correlates directly with the size of the sheet of material.
all photos by Tessa Angus courtesy of All Visual Arts.
Born in 1977, Alastair Mackie has shown his work extensively in the UK and abroad and is widely collected. In 2004 Charles Saatchi purchased a number of pieces for his ‘New Blood’ exhibition at the Saatchi gallery, which lead to his first solo show with Max Wigram later that year. Last year he had his second solo show, Not Waving But Drowning, at The David Roberts Art Foundation. Concurrently his first public out door piece, Mimetes Anon, commissioned by The Contemporary Art Society was exhibited at the Economist Plaza in St. James's, London.
Group exhibitions this year include Dead or Alive at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (which runs until 24th October) and Living in Evolution at The Busan Biennale 2010 in South Korea.
Alastair lives and works in London and Cornwall and is represented by All Visual Arts.
