Artist David Zink Yi presents a giant squid tampering with the awe evoked by a creature we have never seen alive.

Title: Untitled (Architeuthis), 2010. Media: Ceramic, coated with copper and lead, water; 29 x 486 x 115 cm; unique. Artist: David Zink Yi, *1973, Lima, Peru. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.Galleries: Hauser & Wirth, New York; Johann König, Berlin. Courtesy of Art Basel, 2011.

The artwork is presented by Hauser & Wirth Gallery, New York and Johann König Gallery, Berlin at Art Unlimited, Art Basel’s exhibition platform for projects that transcend the classical art-show stand.

Artwork Description

‘Over the past few years, David Zink Yi has worked within the ceramic tradition to create a series of sculptures modeled on Architeuthis, the deep-sea-dwelling giant squid, an elusive creature prominent in myth and legend. Until only a few years ago, the giant squid had never been encountered alive; human experience of this life form was limited to corpses we discovered washed up on beaches. In his largest ceramic sculpture to date, Zink Yi uses the transformative power of heat and pressure to create a handcrafted creature that we understand only through the knowledge of its surface – a body without depth or animus. Lead and copper glazes play off each other to create variation within its metallic surface. The 16-foot deflated form rests in a blackened pool of liquid, provoking the viewer into a power full encounter with the grotesque.’

Art Basel, June 15-19, 2011. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Morfae and the copyright owner.