{"data":{"id":"40","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":40,"topgoose_id":121,"tms_id":40,"display_name":"Alice Aycock","sort_name":"Aycock Alice","display_date":"1946–","begin_date":"1946","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eIn the early 1970s Alice Aycock found her\n“muse” in architecture. Her large-scale,\nMinimalist-inspired work staged encounters\ninflected with a sense of precariousness,\nin which spectators navigated mazes,\nclimbed ladders, or crawled through cramped\nenclosures. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1371\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUntitled (Shanty)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003emarked a\nshift in Aycock’s work toward “nonfunctional\narchitecture”—irrational sculptures\nentered imaginatively rather than physically.\nDescribed by the artist as a “medieval\nwheel house,” \u003cem\u003eUntitled (Shanty)\u003c/em\u003e is a\nrudimentarily carpentered wood hut, roof\npitched with four gables, front door swung\nopen, propped on a platform, and set\nagainst a pair of ladders inscribed within\na wheel. While the wheel recalls a\nprimitive mechanism for a watermill or a\ntorture device, its function is not discernable;\neven if the shack were large enough\nfor a person, it would still be inaccessible,\nperched several feet above the ground.\nThe works that followed this piece—\nfrequently public art commissions in\nsteel, aluminum, plastic, and wood—are\nmassive, theatrical pseudo-architectural\nand mechanical structures, similarly\nevoking utilitarian forms but not\nmade for practical use. Drawing from a\nheterogeneous set of architectural,\nscientific, literary, and occult sources\n(Thai legends, ancient Egyptian\ntombs, Bauhaus design, tantric drawings,\nmicrochips, and autobiographical\nexperiences), Aycock’s repertoire of\nclaustrophobia- and vertigo-inducing\nforms variously suggests amusement-park\nrides, turbines, towers, and temples.\nAccording to the artist, her syntheses of\narchitectural and symbolic elements\ninvestigate the relationship between the\nway people produce tools—whether\narrowheads or rocket ships—and the\nstructure of our minds, plumbing the limits\nof human imagination and thinking.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500026635","wikidata_id":"Q523722","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:29:30.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-09T07:01:25.145-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/40/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/40/exhibitions"}}}}