This latest exhibition from Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone is a display of new sculptures from his ongoing ‘Still.Life’ series.Objects such as bread, potatoes, walnuts, trees and cardboard have been cast in bronze and painted, looking impressively identical to the originals.

The objects chosen are symbolic of still life painting and also corresponds to the transient nature depicted in the vanitas. Arranged in a very minimalist and conceptual way; the simplicity echoes the signature of 1960s Arte Povera.

However, Rondinone’s depiction of everyday materials are not as fleeting and perishable as Arte Povera’s exploration. His are solid and permanent. The piece of bread that looks full of air is deceptive; it is actually dense and made of weighty substance. This is the illusion, the mastery of trompe l’oeil; the- ‘they appear to be not what you think them to be’ - that old chestnut (or walnut.) But they are seductive and they are compelling, they are remarkable imitations of the real thing.

The show is a good starting point for a debate on sculpture- about craftsmanship, realism and the quest for ideal life-likeness. Being reminiscent of the Arte Povera movement; licensing themselves with so much freedom, you consider again how confident their arrangements actually were. In comparison to the painstaking fabrication of Rondinone’s, it makes a row of real walnuts or a readymade piece of cardboard seem brave and quite endearing. This show takes their aesthetic but metaphorically and literally grounds it.

Rondinone’s clones are strange alien phenomena, quite weird, precious and a little lonely. Psychologically they are not spiritual and earthly like the trees they were cast from. There’s a tension to this peaceful allusion; they are stuck while reflecting on life's impermanence.

This strikes a thoughtful and slightly melancholy note; when you realise the stillness, of ‘time suspended and death held at bay’.[1] Isolation is a strong theme in Rondinone’s objects and NUDE is a quiet and reflective show. His objects, unlike their natural subjects, who will meet their inevitable death - will remain as a thoughtful lament on the transience and still life of things.

-- Jane Mae Howard

All Images copyright Ugo Rondinone; courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Images from Top to Bottom:(still.life. (pine tree standing in a corner), 2008, cast bronze, lead, paint; 2 parts, edition 1 of 1 + 1 a/p, 328 x 508 x 11 cm / 129 ⅛ x 200 x 4 ⅜ in; still.life. (cardboard leaning on the wall), 2009, cast bronze, lead, paint, edition 1 of 1 + 1 a/p, 110 x 117.5 cm / 43 ¼ x 46 ¼ in; Ugo Rondinone, Nude, Installation View, Sadie Coles HQ London.)

[1] Ugo Rondinone NUDE, Sadie Coles HQ press release 13 October – 21 November 2009