Fiona Banner: Runway (AW 17)
De Pont Museum
Wilhelminapark 1
5041 EA Tilburg, Netherlands
29 Apr - 27 Aug 2017
In the vast industrial space of De Pont's main gallery, Banner creates a theatrical mise-en-scène where towering helicopter rotor blades and re-purposed military plane parts become the unknowing cast. Her deft handling of these objects reveals their anthropomorphic potential: Gazelle helicopter rotor blades are reminiscent of totem poles; a pair of Harrier nose cones suggest breasts, and elsewhere faces emerge from the juxtaposition of Jaguar drop tanks with abstract graphite drawings of full stops in different typefaces. Banner has long been fascinated by military aircraft, finding them at once beautiful and horrifying; almost 'prehistoric, from a time before words'.