Museum of Classical Archaeology Cambridge
19 May – 3 November 2018

Kettle’s Yard Cambridge
5 September – Sunday 14 October 2018
 

Florian Roithmayr’s Humility of Plaster is a two-year research and exhibition project exploring the materiality of collections housing plaster moulds and casts across Europe, enabled through a new partnership between the Museum of Classical Archaeology and Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, and Wysing Arts Centre where Roithmayr has a studio.

Moulding and casting are widely used techniques of modern and contemporary art making. But their use and application can be found in many other areas of production and material transformations not immediately associated with art practices, and in times before casting became an acceptable form of sculptural production in its own right. 

Roithmayr has developed a new body of sculptures in response to this research that will be presented amongst the collection of plaster casts of classical works at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, 19 May to 3 November. Later in the year his research will be presented in an exhibition at Kettle’s Yard.

Alongside the exhibitions, Roithmayr has developed an audio blog that presents interviews recorded in different plaster cast collections across Europe, drawing attention to the materials and techniques still used in the moulding workshops often operating parallel to the collections displaying the casts.

To accompany the exhibitions, an artist book is published by Tenderbooks, London, designed by Sara De Bondt Studio, with contributions by writers Agnieszka Gratza and Alex Massouras. The book will be launched on Tuesday 24 July 2018, 18:00 at Tenderbooks, London.

A conference and a book launch on Tuesday 4 September at Kettle’s Yard will include contributions from invited speakers from a range of moulding and casting workshops, exploring practical making, plaster casting techniques and collection strategies, as well as Dr Rebecca Wade, assistant curator Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, Alex Massouras, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, and artist Karin Ruggaber.

For further information on events and workshops associated with the exhibitions please visit Museum of Classical Archaeology and Kettle’s Yard

Humility of Plaster is co-commissioned by Museum of Classical Archaeology, Kettle’s Yard and Wysing Arts Centre. It is supported using public funding by Arts Council England, Henry Moore Foundation, The Elephant Trust, The University of Cambridge Museums and the Paul Mellon Centre.