smithkn13203159: Tim Shaw; Black smoke rising

This exhibition was at the MAC in Birmingham. The sculptures were presented in a large room that was detailed to the artists ideas. The sculptures were human forms they were large and intimidating as you walked in it was dark, and smoke was covering the room.

The ideas around 'black smoke rising was about torture. Tim Shaw was born in Belfast, and as he was brought up there he was surrounded by political issues which has influenced his sculptures greatly.

I normally am not that compelled by sculpture but because of the way Shaw set out his I found it really interesting. It was almost like a theatre stage or film stage, which would either put you off or make you really enjoy the atmosphere it created. I felt intimidated by it, in a film that I had watched whilst I was their Shaw mentioned that he would like his viewers to feel something as they came in, perhaps not a joyful feeling but fear, or intimidation. One aspect I thought was too much on this particular setting was the writing on the walls, I thought that it was too obvious. However I did think that the walls should not have been white, but Shaw could have made the walls like in the smaller installation that was part of the exhibition as well; which is the one that intimidated me the most.

This was a piece called 'Man on fire' which is based of real images Shaw had seen in newspapers. When I saw this sculpture it appeared more atmospheric than this, the room was darker and the shadows were much more prominent. As I walked around the room the shadows were an interesting factor, as you saw your own shadows you almost felt apart of the sculptures.

'Soul Snatcher Possession'

This made me feel really intimidated , the figures were bigger than life-size again and you could walk around them, however I didn't. The room that the figures was in was tiny; which added to the height of them. In the film Shaw explained that the materials used for these figures were clothes from charity shops.