Michael Landy: Saints Alive at The National Gallery

Michael Landy is the 2013 Rootstein Hopkins Associate Artist in residence at the National Gallery. In May, the Sunley Room will display seven large-scale kinetic sculptures representing a contemporary view of the lives of the saints. In representing the saints, a subject more often associated with traditional sacred art than with contemporary work, Landy has embarked on a revelatory subject for the exhibition. The large-scale sculptures consist of fragments of National Gallery paintings cast in three dimensions and assembled with one of Landy’s hallmarks – refuse. By scouring car boot sales and flea markets, Landy has accumulated old machinery, cogs and wheels to produce surprising sculptures that revive an often overlooked subject. Landy’s interest in recycling intriguingly extends to recycling religious iconography for a 21st-century audience. Born in London in 1963, Landy attended Goldsmiths College and is part of the generation of artists who became known as the YBAs (Young British Artists). He is best known for his 2001 installation, Break Down where he catalogued and then destroyed all of his possessions in a former department store in London.