In Memory takes the form of a small, private cemetery, placed within a poured concrete enclosure. The names with which the gravestones had been inscribed have been blanked out by the artist to create an unsettling erasure.

For In Memory, artist Nathan Coley acquired gravestones that, for various reasons, had been removed from their former sites. He had the names with which they had been inscribed blanked out. This traditional sculptural gesture – that of carving – is here joined by an iconoclastic act and an appropriation, in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades. The result is a set of unsettled and unsettling objects, in which the scoring out of a name suggests the erasure wrought by death, and draws particular attention to precisely what is generic or cultural in private monuments – namely those forms of address or dedication that frame mourning.

In Memory creates a place that gives us a space to reflect on what separates the living and the dead, and on how we demarcate that separation. In addition to In Memory, Jupiter Artland’s permanent collection includes another artwork by Coley titled You Imagine What You Desire.

‘In Memory is not about me, it’s about you. The less I say about it, the more chance it has to shift and move. Monuments and graveyards are, of course, the most legitimate form of public art. They are objects that act as substitutes for people now gone, active things symbolising the absence of a form. I think of In Memory as an artwork for Bonnington House, more than for the current family living there. Most cultures bury their dead, and many country estates have graveyards. It seemed to me that there was a moment missing from the woods, so I thought about building an enclosure that allowed you to sit still for a bit, to daydream a little and to contemplate your lot.’ Nathan Coley

Biography

Nathan Coley (b.1967, Scotland) investigates the social aspects of our built environment, working across a diverse range of media including public and gallery-based sculpture, photography, drawing, and video. Interested in public space, the artist explores how architecture comes to be invested – and reinvested – with meaning, and how through the competing practices of place these claims and significations come into conflict. His work questions how we relate to public spaces and architecture, driven by research questions centring around the social aspects of our built environment and the communities and individuals who occupy it.

Coley was born, lives and works in Glasgow. The artist graduated from Glasgow School of Art (1989) with a BA in Fine Art. Solo exhibitions of Coley’s work have been held at Parafin London (2017); Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany (2013); Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam (2011); The National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2010); Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2009); De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea (2008) and Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2004). In 2007 Coley was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize award. His work is represented in many international public and private collections.