Ugo Rondinone: Moonrise Sculptures

Best known for his large-scale sculptures and installations, Ugo Rondinone (born 1964, Brunnen, Switzerland) works in a diverse range of media, including drawing, painting, photography, and video. 

Rondinone’s series Moonrise—his first figurative sculptures—are eight-foot-high busts derived from masks. Modeled in clay before being cast in aluminum and painted, the sculptures show the enduring marks of the artist’s hand. Rondinone has long been interested in the subject of time, and he represents it here by the relationship between moon, tide, and calendar: each of the twelve sculptures in the series was made in homage to the moon and is named after a month of the calendar year. Two of the twelve are on view here. These monumental visages, with playfully distorted faces that smile and grimace, convey a kind of uncanny romanticism, welcoming wonder and empathy in equal measure.

Installed outside of the ICA, MOONRISE. east. april and MOONRISE. east. may, both from 2005, will welcome visitors to the ICA all summer long.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website