Ryan Johnson - Contemporary Artists

Sentinel (Orange) (detail)

Sentinel (Orange) (detail) The Saatchi Gallery
 

Ryan Johnson

Sentinel (Orange) (detail)

2008
Casting tape, rebar, plywood, cement, plastic, spray paint, glass, aluminium, enamel paint

327.7 x 124.5 x 55.9 cm

Made from plaster bandage, Johnson’s Sentinel (Orange) towers with mummified clumsiness; its hollowed skin a disembodied armour encasing a time-defying tick-tock face. Its hazard orange – the actual colour of the medical tape – doubles as emergency unit uniform; the figure is an unsung hero of past and present, an underappreciated deity of safety and assurance. Rescuing his paladins from an eternally forlorn fate, Johnson’s sculptures in this series were originally exhibited with marker pens tied to their appendages, inviting viewers to decorate their surfaces with messages; the public outpouring of adulation becoming graffiti defacement of monuments no longer valued.
 
  close window

 


© All rights reserved - The Saatchi Gallery - London Contemporary Art Gallery