'On The Floor' Sculpture by John Gibbons and Nathaniel Rackowe. John Gibbons’ sculptures in this exhibition, have an interesting relationship with the floor. Despite their obvious stillness, they are not rooted as permanent stationary objects. For example, ‘Transition (Monks Song) 2002’ meets the floor with sled-like runners. ‘Breath, 2001’ sits on a trolley with castors, and both pieces imply movement in the same way that a car standing still, tells us everything about its potential for motion. This ‘potential’ is also seen in Nathaniel Rackowe’s low lying piece ‘LP27, 2010’, which hugs the floor, concertina-like; hinting at its capability for lateral expansion and contraction.

The supposed intangibility of space and light and the consequential description of volume rather than mass, is a connecting concern for both artists. Nathaniel Rackowe encloses light, or allows it to emit in organised, particular ways, inside and outside of the work. For example, as it spreads across the floor ‘LP27’ squeezes out bright slithers of light from between its black, corrugated layers. ‘LP22, 2009’, is upright, has slatted wooden sides and a lattice of orange netting. It is the container for a fluorescent bulb, which as an object itself, is presentationally offered diagonally inside the work. Light from the bulb, leaks out from its insufficient container, into the space around it, onto the walls and floor, taking away with it, some of the colour belonging to the container. John Gibbons’ pieces both enclose space and set it free; there is a duality of space that presents us with the dilemma of deciding what is contained, and what is container; what is inside and what is outside.