Michail Pirgelis
Los Angeles
April 6–May 7, 2011
London

Sprüth Magers London is pleased to present ‘Los Angeles’ featuring new work by the German-born, Greek artist Michail Pirgelis in his first solo exhibition in the U.K. A graduate of the prestigious Düsseldorf Academy and former Master student of Rosemarie Trockel, Pirgelis’ artistic practice explores the sculptural possibilities of decommissioned airplane parts.

Since 2003, Pirgelis has made frequent visits to the ‘boneyards’ of Arizona and California, the now legendary resting places and holding facilities of scores of obsolete aircraft and flight-related paraphernalia. The planes either await re-deployment or are stripped piece-by-piece of their highly valuable parts which are incorporated back into other still viable vessels, with some craft remaining little more than carcasses. Pirgelis’ sculptures are often carefully hybridised amalgams of these incongruous aircraft remnants. In Bateleur (2011) seatbelts and fuselage are united in an attempt to explore the precariousness of flight: ‘bateleur’ being the French term for ‘tight-rope walker’ but also the name of a colourful species of eagle. Indeed, the sculptural composition is reminiscent of a single feather. Similarly, Untitled (From the Air Saddles #7) (2011) is one of a series of pieces that fuse thick rubber strops with slices of the highly polished fuselage with the window frames still visible; the latter a small yet significant indication of a now disavowed functionality. However, by utilising sought-after materials that continue to have a use-value in the multi-billion dollar aviation industry, the sculptures, regardless of modification, have the potential to resume their previous ‘life’ once again as functioning parts of an aircraft. It is all the more significant that Pirgelis’ works have on occasion been reintegrated back into functioning aircraft.