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DAVID RICKARD

My first encounter with David Rickards' work was in a domestic setting which befits his background in architecture and on-going interest in spatial relationships, yet at the same time seems contrarian given the proximity to scientific experimentation seen in many of his artworks. The approach that Rickard adopts in his work embraces a scientific intent, a desire to discover what will happen when x occurs, as well as a playful willingness to accept the unpredictable outcomes that result
 
The meticulous hypothesising, planning and projecting is often only witnessed through understanding the way in which he approaches his work, for the final product is beautifully pared down. It is as though Rickard has absorbed a lesson in beauty from nature and expresses it so effortlessly in his work. A tree's leaves never directly overlap in order to maximise light exposure, a snowflake is never duplicated yet both are seemingly simple beautiful structures that belie the complex mathematics that are inherent within them.

Rickard’s works reverberate with ideas of mapping chance, random events or actions as seen in Random Relatives, 2009/10 and in the Constellation works, 2010 and on-going. The latter series comprises beautiful pseudo-constellations of pigeon droppings, which are encased in highly polished resin, connected in chronology of their occurrence these scatological constellations mimic the subjective human ordering and labeling of the night skies.

From the Capacity series (2010 and on-going), Untitled 2010 cleverly balances the dissonant worlds of economics and physics. A gilded chair is loaded with lead until it collapses. This collapse clearly removes the functionality of the chair, rendering it pointless. With this process Rickard echoes the futility of alchemy and the fluidity of value, with lead/gold transmutation now scientifically possible yet at a cost that far outweighs the value of the gold created.

Ingrid Hinton, 2011

Random Relatives 2009 (detail image)
Exhaust 27-04-10, 2010 (detail)
Test Flights 2009, work in progress