Sam Durant, ‘Trope’ (2020) (video still). Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
Sam Durant’s two-channel video ‘Trope’ (2020) accompany The Common Guild’s presentation of the artist’s ‘Iconoclasm’ drawings across outdoor sites in the city from 17 May – 11 July 2021.
Both the drawings and the video depict historical and contemporary acts of destruction enacted upon statues and monuments in the public realm. Many of the ‘Iconoclasm’ drawings were taken from original newspaper photo-reportage and television footage. Likewise, ‘Trope’ is a compilation of recent and archival news clips collected and collaged together from anonymous internet sources.
The video portrays the simultaneous toppling and resurrection of public statuary in different locations around the world – including the spontaneous deposition of the statue of Edward Colston by Bristol residents in 2020 – ‘Trope’ emphasising the cyclical and recursive nature of iconoclastic acts and the compulsion to destroy symbols of the past.
Sam Durant (b. 1961, Seattle, Washington USA) lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Los Angeles, California, USA.
Durant is an interdisciplinary artist whose works engage a variety of social, political, and cultural issues that emphasise democratic ideals, racial equality and social justice. His works make connections with present and ongoing social and cultural issues, often taking up forgotten events from the past.
Durant’s interest in monuments and memorials began with ‘Proposal for Monument’ at Altamont Raceway (1999), continued notably with ‘Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions’ (2005) that recontextualizes memorials to victims of the conquest of North America, and more recently with ‘Proposal for Public Fountain’ (2015), a marble work depicting an anarchist statue being blasted by a police water cannon. He has recently presented major public art projects, ‘Labyrinth’ (2015) in Philadelphia which addressed mass incarceration and ‘The Meeting House’ (2016) in Concord, MA that took up the subject of race in colonial and contemporary New England.
Durant’s latest public sculpture, ‘Untitled (drone)’, (2021) – a monumental fiberglass sculpture in the shape of an abstracted drone ¬– is the second commission for the High Line Plinth, New York City, and is on view from May 2021 until 2022. It raises the issues of drone warfare and surveillance in American society.
His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions including Documenta 13, the Yokohama Triennial, the Venice, Sydney, Busan, Liverpool, Panama, and Whitney Biennials. His work can be found in many public collections including Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium, Tate Modern, London, England.
Durant teaches art at the California Institute of the Arts.
Project Details
Sam Durant, ‘Trope’ (2020)
Two channel video with sound
12 minutes, 35 seconds
Video editor Ana Branea, Sound design Laurențiu Coțac.
Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
‘Trope’ was presented as part of Glasgow International 2021’s Digital Programme.
Further Info
Additional Links
Sam Durant, ‘Iconoclasm’
Glasgow International
