The Glasgow School of Art

Simon Starling
'Autoxylopyrocycloboros' listen to audio recording

Autoxylopyrocycloboros is a new project, commissioned by Cove Park, by the internationally acclaimed visual artist Simon Starling. Autoxylopyrocycloboros locates itself firmly within the history and geography of the Clyde estuary. Rooted in the pioneering development of steamboat technology on the Clyde and in the brooding presence of the nuclear submarines based at neighbouring Coulport and Faslane, Autoxylopyrocycloboros will take the form of a circular, entropic voyage on the waters of Loch Long.

Simon Starling graduated from The Glasgow School of Art MFA in 1992. He has exhibited extensively, including at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (1998), Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana, Slovenia (2000), Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt am Main (2002), the Venice Biennale (as part of Zenomap 2003), and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2003). In 2005 he won the Turner Prize. He lives and works in Glasgow and Berlin.

Starling's work is characterised by an engagement with the meaning and value of objects and the processes involved in transforming one object or substance into another. His work points to connections between the history of Modernism and contemporary globalization. He gives equal consideration to the appreciation of the design of objects - from chairs and bicycles to planes and boats - as he does to the social, economic and cultural conditions in which they are produced.

Hosted by The School of Fine Art, The Friday Event Lecture Series is The Glasgow School of Art's flagship public lecture series, and brings major international speakers (including artists, architects, designers, historians and cultural theorists) to the city of Glasgow.