WORK OF THE WEEK : Nika Neelova, ‘Lemniscate IX’, 2020

Nika Neelova
Lemniscate IX, 2020
Mahogany reclaimed handrails
310 x 130 x 70 cm
122 ⅛ x 51 ⅛ x 27 ½ in.

£ 25,000 + VAT

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Nika Neelova's sculptural installations embody the idea of 'reverse archaeology', a term coined by the artist to interrogate and reimagine the meaning of unearthed and recovered artefacts. In the Lemniscate series, Nika Neelova creates abstract configurations using wooden bannisters rescued from old English houses awaiting demolition. Lemniscate IX has great craftmanship, the sculpture is beautifully balanced and very stable. The use of reclaimed materials, disassociated from their original use and re-composed in Neelova's new arrangements, exude their own original energy and heritage. As the artist writes, “I am interested in working with the notion of the ruin – as the site of simultaneous accord and conflict between culture and nature, where objects are liberated from their forms and meanings".

The continuous relationship between wood and skin furthers the connection between a building and an inhabitant. The hands of the craftsman that made the original bannisters connect with the hands that have worn them over time, which in turn connect with the hands of the artist and, ultimately, the viewer, preserving the memory of these human bodies and the identities which they hold.

Neelova's exploration of time and history is paralleled in the form of a lemniscate- the term, in mathematics, for a distinct figure–of–eight consisting of two loops that meet at a central point. While not always adhering strictly to this form, the Lemniscates record the connection between the human body, architecture and space, the concept of the infinite loop ever present.

Nika Neelova
Lemniscate IX, 2020

Born in Moscow in 1987, Nika Neelova lives and works in London. She studied at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague and at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has been awarded several major prizes, including the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize (2010), the Saatchi Gallery New Sensations Award (2010), the Land Security Prize Award (2011) and the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award (2012). Nika Neelova’s works can now be found in a number of important collections in Europe and the United States.

Nika Neelova
Lemniscate IX, 2020