Sean Scully: Standing on the Land

In 2021, Pilane celebrates 15 years as a sculpture park with Sean Scully's solo exhibition Standing on the Land, comprising six monumental sculptures throughout the grounds, on view until 26 September 2021. 

I do believe abstraction is and was meant to embody deep emotions. I believe that's its job, in the history of art. — Sean Scully

Scully's art prompts intuitive understanding. The feelings, perceptions and moods that are aroused may be hard to express in words, but they concern the existential condition of mankind. Our strengths and our weaknesses. Our past and our future. Nature as mankind's first home, and culture as nature's mirror. Scully's sculptures settle in perfectly at Pilane. Here, they are enveloped in fleeting moments. Seasons, weather and light conditions shift uncontrollably. 

Every work of art out here is in a state of perpetual rebirth and regulated by nature. The long fingers of the sun caress and illuminate them on the outside. Raindrops sketch their own patterns on wood and metal surfaces. The summer light enhances the characteristics of the materials. But dusk saps the colours from the landscape and the art. Darkness engulfs it all and eventually takes possession of it. Nature's clock follows its own laws and leaves its traces on the sculptures, which continue to move visitors over and over again, with living, ever-renewed force. — Joanna Persman. Download the full catalogue text via the links below.