IMG 7006-001-X

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

X is a work by young Latvian-American artist Viktor Timofeev that seizes on the power of contrasts. Suprisingly its industrial aesthetic sits in comfortable harmony with the scenic natural backdrop of the West Sussex countryside at Cass Sculpture Foundation. The form of X is a meshing of geometric archetypes; the square, the cube and the cross. The latter of these forms disrupts the former, by cutting across the surface and employing small variations in size. With its perforated, open-top structure and incised diagonals X is only perceptible when all four walls are seen simultaneously. The interior of polished mirror steel provides a direct contrast to the rusty corten steel exterior, resulting in a balance of extremes rather than a state of decay. The only way inside of this structure demands that you enter diagonally, squeezing in between the interlocking “teeth” which are made by the rectangular perforations. This journey inwards presents one with a conflict of feeling, at once both menacing and inviting. Once inside, a mirrored panorama surrounds the viewer, bringing the outside in and providing no overhead shelter. Timofeev calls X an attempt at a metal-sanctuary and cites his profound experience at Aldo Rossi’s San Cataldo cemetery in Modena as particularly influential.