Curse Lifter | Tim Shaw at SOLO CONTEMPORARY

Tim Shaw’s Man on Fire outside IWMN (2023)

The Belfast-born sculptor Tim Shaw has had a good 2023. If you went to the Summer Exhibition at the RA (of which he is a member) you’ll have seen several pieces of his work in the Sculpture Room, which he helped to curate.

One of the works was a resin cast of the head of his sculpture Man on Fire, a monumental bronze version of which was unveiled in July of this year outside the Imperial War Museum North, in Salford, Manchester (image above). The work was shaped by a photo of a soldier, his clothes aflame, attempting to escape from a burning tank, during the invasion of Iraq. It is, as you might surmise, a powerful piece.

Another work, on a similar theme, called The Burning of Lifting the Curse has an interesting anecdote behind it. In 2021, after a dispute with the Royal Academy, Gilbert and George, handed in their resignation from the institution, issuing a curse on the Royal Academy and all its members. In that year’s Summer Exhibition, Shaw exhibited a ten-foot wooden sculpture, akin to a Mummer, titled Lifting the Curse, as a retort to the embittered duo’s act. The sculpture was designed to ‘absorb dark energy’, which would then be transmuted and released in a ceremonial fire.

So last year, he burnt the sculpture, also dedicating the act to the people of Ukraine, and everyone escaping war and tyranny. A photo of the burning sculpture, which brings to mind the 1973 folk horror film The Wicker Man, was also exhibited at the 2023 Summer Exhibition. The image has been chosen by Peter Gabriel on the cover of his latest track release, The Court, and he is showing footage of the burning ritual on his world tour. 

On top of all that, Tim has been chosen by the Fiumano Clase Gallery as the artist they are exhibiting in the second edition of SOLO CONTEMPORARY, on the second floor of Saatchi Gallery. Last year’s edition saw the inauguration of SOLO CONTEMPORARY, which was such a success that the number of stands has been increased from 10 to 20. Watch this space for news on other galleries and contemporary artists involved.