Exhibition Description
False Flat
Works by Adam Shirley
February 13 – March 27, 2010
False Flat, Adam Shirley’s first solo exhibit in Detroit, presents the artist’s latest investigations into the relationships that exist between two and three dimensional objects, material and scale. In a departure from the small wearable sculptures and jewelry for which he is commonly known, Shirley explores form and volume in model-sized flat pieces that leave the interpretation of scale and function open to the viewer.
Working primarily in steel, a material typically associated with utility and function, he describes the objects in False Flat as existing in a state “somewhere between a thought or idea and the process of transformation into physical form.” The result are works that engage the viewer into exploring the potentials of each object or form, not so much to arrive at a definition of what they are, but simply to enjoy the journey of envisioning what they could be.