Flocked

In the 1960s, Keith Sonnier expanded his approach to sculpture by using cheap and unconventional materials that were pliable and subject to changing conditions. By 1967, Sonnier had started making works out of latex, painting directly on the wall and then partially peeling it off. In Flocked, the latex was covered with hairy fibres while wet. The flocked material gives the work a tactile, sensually organic skin-like surface. After the latex had dried and been removed from the wall, it contracted. The edges show traces of the process with which it was created. Every time this work is shown, it is performed anew, to continuously enact its site-specific qualities.