Céline Condorelli, Bulk: Everlasting Colour

Posted on 11th December 2024

Céline Condorelli was the National Gallery’s Artist-in-Residence in 2023, a partnership between the National Gallery and RAMM. It provided the artist an opportunity to respond to one of the greatest collections of paintings in the Western European tradition, as well as RAMM’s rich collections and engaging contemporary art programme.

Condorelli used X-ray to examine the National Gallery building. Fragments of the wall fabric, floorboards, glass and green marble were scanned in the laboratory, along with images contained in the department’s archive, to create AI-generated ‘composite material images’.

These images were reproduced on a carpet material to bring a bodily awareness to how a visitor might behave in a gallery space. As with Condorelli’s previous interventions in other major European museums, Bulk: Everlasting Colour encourages alternative ways of gathering in a gallery space.

*Bulk: Everlasting Colour* (2023) on display at the National Gallery in 2023

As part of the residency, Condorelli’s visits to RAMM made her aware that its nineteenth century building shared similarities with that of the National Gallery’s, through its materials and institutional history.

‘In my work as an artist there is an opportunity to continue developing this idea of deep perception, a sensual perception, making art part of everyday life again in a sort of complicated but also bodily way.’
Céline Condorelli

Pentimenti (0751), 2023 displayed in the Courtyard Core Wall

A large painting with a mountainous grassland background, with curtains in both top corners; overlaid with a grey square carpet.

Pentimenti (0751) is a photographic work from a series of studies of backdrops of fifteenth century paintings in the National Gallery’s collection, that use textiles to frame or contain their subject.

Presented to the RAMM collection by the Contemporary Art Society through a partnership with the 2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence programme, with the support of Anna Yang and Joseph Schull, 2023/24

_{Images:
Céline Condorelli, Everlasting Bulk (2023) National Gallery, London, ©️ Céline Condorelli, 2023

Céline Condorelli, Pentimenti (0751), 2023, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 54.5 x 39 cm, Ed. 1 of 2 + AP. © Céline Condorelli 2024}