Roelof Louw: Rolled Lead Piece (1970)

Karsten Schubert, in association with Richard Saltoun Gallery, announces an exhibition of Roelof Louw’s Rolled Lead Piece (1970).

This important work of British Conceptual art was last exhibited at the international survey exhibition Between Man and Matter: Tokyo Biennale 1970  (1970). Taking over one room of the gallery, the work consists of sheets of lead that are rolled and pushed towards the gallery walls. Arising out of the Process Art movement of the 1960s, the work emphasises the process of its own construction by using a traditional sculptural materia in a non-traditional manner.

Louw's work tests the limits of the human body by incorporating the physical act of rolling out the lead within the work itself. The process of rolling is interrupted at various stages to be documented, and the process is completed when the exhibition ends and the lead is sold back to its original supplier.