The Skyscraper Index (installation view) Installation

A series of 12 perforated metal sculptures based on buildings of record-breaking height, each of which also coincided with a major financial crisis. This theory, ‘THE SKYSCRAPER INDEX’, shows that buildings are manifestations of absurd, irrational and egotistical impulses. At its essence, the series frames contemporary economic ideologies as a mystery religion. Tall buildings have always represented society’s most powerful interests. For example, Mesopotamian ziggurats or Egyptian pyramids were dedicated to cults of fertility or kingship, whereas during the Industrial Revolution church spires were eclipsed by mill and factory chimneys. Skyscrapers today represent the dominance of financial / economic thought in contemporary society. But despite their rational-looking exteriors, perhaps the activities inside these buildings are not so different from those within an ancient temple – mysteries, expressed through algorithms and tax codes – the sacrificial goat, replaced by the dismembering of the Welfare State to the gods of economic growth. Recalling Paolozzi’s machine sculptures, the perforated metal alludes to electronic hardware (server cabinets, cable trunking), but also a heritage of esotericism and mystic religion (Aztec breastplates, French tarot cards, Jain cosmologies) – creating objects that are both familiar and strange, everyday and incomprehensible. “We sometimes think of cities and towers representing the triumph of rationality – the product of many sophisticated systems, like planning, financing, designing and building. But with the Skyscraper Index the masks slips. Decisions are suddenly not as hard-headed as you imagine. In this series, skyscrapers become a metaphor for risky speculation, this quasi-religious faith in a bubble economy.” “A skyscraper is always a big swaying dick vaunting the ambitions of late capitalism to reduce the human individual to the status and the proportions of a submissive worker ant” – Will Self, novelist “The current system of power is fundamentally pretty invisible to us … finance, new kinds of management, within computers … invisible algorithms shape and manage information” – Adam Curtis, documentary filmmaker “[Economics] describes an imagined world. It’s a kind of science fiction” – Avner Offer, economic historian

Installation:Metal on Steel

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:59.1 W x 19.7 H x 5.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.