Description

Woven Worlds (Some Notes on a Work in Progress) describes the development of an exhibition project on which Simon Starling is currently at work, recounting how an idea can spring from a particular circumstance or situation, the encounter with a place or setting, and trigger a process that comes to maturity through the creation of a work. While on the one hand, the text can therefore be seen as illustrating Starling’s overall practice, which moves from “chance,” to investigation, to concrete incarnation as a finished piece, on the other it shows the role and significance that the practice of writing is assigned in his work. As the artist says, “giving linguistic shape to a thought process is a way to challenge and refine that thinking – to get to the bottom of what really matters”: and so writing is not merely a form of later reflection, but an important exploratory tool and gauge in the process of conceiving and creating a work.