Ken Cox
b. 1927-1968, UK
Ken Cox was the pre-eminent sculptor of the British concrete poetry movement. Cox’s work featured in the Between Poetry and Painting exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, in 1965.
In 1967, Cox’s Three Graces was commissioned for the international concrete poetry exhibition at the first Brighton Festival. Installed at sea between Brighton’s two piers, the sculpture included three towers – Passion, Love and Beauty – which floated on the waves until a gale toppled the structure. Another version of the Three Graces work went on show at Cybernetic Serendipity, an exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1968.
Art historian Stephen Bann has described Cox as “a unique force in the English avant-garde of the 1960s”. For Bann, “the work Cox completed before his untimely death in 1968 was already distinctive and accomplished enough to make him a prime representative of that exciting period”.
Ken Cox with his Four Seasons Clock, 1965
Mixed-media mechanical clock with wood and metal
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Shadow Box, 1965
Metal and fibreglass, wired with light fitting, 760 x 500mm
Shadow Box was first shown at the second international exhibition of experimental poetry in Oxford in 1965 (one year after the first international exhibition in Cambridge). In Oxford, it was thrown into the river by students as a protest against the exhibition, and subsequently rescued.
It is made to be mounted on a wall, with the interaction of the mechanical moving letters and the light bulb creating shadows on the circular concave disc.
In the second image to the left, the work is shown on the lawn outside the artist’s studio in Kingscote, Gloucestershire, before being exhibited in Oxford.
POR
Suncycle, 1968
Hand-carved and etched brass, 550 x 50mm
Cox made two proposals for the 1967 Brighton Festival, both of which were concrete poetry sculptures. Three Graces was chosen over Suncycle.
What was a complex proposal is here modified by Cox: the final work is a smaller sculpture than first envisioned, hanging from a translucent fishing line suspended from the ceiling.
Cox carved and etched Suncycle at his studio in Kingscote. In an interview with Elizabeth Glazebrook in June 1968, he said, “Hacksawed by hand, brass is a nice material to work with… I shall have it turning very slowly and there will be a light on it.” And indeed, when moved by slight touch or mild breeze, Suncycle spins gently – the text glowing mesmerically in the surrounding space.
£2,000
Elemental Balloon series, 1968
5 balloons made of printed ripstop nylon, each with an acrylic base, stand, fan and light, 2000 x 800mm each
Apparently inspired by an etching by Samuel Palmer, these balloons draw equally on the elements, printed with words such as ‘EARTH’, ‘FIRE’ and ‘OCEAN’.
POR
Moving Letter Board, 1965
Mixed-media mechanical work with wood and copper strips, 1000 x 800mm
Moving Letter Board is a highly intricate work in which the mechanical letters move through an electric solenoid engineering system. Exhibited at Between Poetry and Painting at the ICA, London (1965).
Together with a work on paper (felt tip on a scroll of graph paper), 26 x 3215mm, on which there is a code / design for the copper strip mechanism.
POR
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