Sam Durrant

Sam Durant has used installation, drawing, sculpture and text since the early 1990s to explore language and society, and how individuals and groups articulate their concerns publicly. Durant’s work takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues, and explores the varying relationships between popular culture and fine art through a variety of materials and processes. His diverse subjects include the civil rights movement, southern rock music and modernist architecture. For the Biennale, the artist has created a series of illuminated signs containing de-contextualised quotes from placards used during protest demonstrations within the Aboriginal civil rights movement in Australia and from African American and Native American civil rights movements in the United States. It is art about the use and meaning of political language in society. - Biennale of Sydney 2008


For an interesting discussion of the relationship between Durant and Robert Smithson regarding Durant's remking of Simthson's partially buried woodshed ( involving, also Tacita Dean), please see the top link below
Further Links
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10523458_ITM
http://www.artreview.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1474022%3ABlogPost%3A3276
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/sam_durant/
http://www.blumandpoe.com/samdurant/flip.htm?index=39
http://www.blumandpoe.com/samdurant/flip.htm?index=11
http://www.blumandpoe.com/samdurant/flip.htm?index=12
http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.3.SCULPT.SAM%20DURANT.htm

A good catalogue is available in from the Elam Library
Details: Title- Sam Durant, Hatje Cantz Publishers, March 2, 2003)