Simple Simply Isn't: A Conversation with Peter Shelton
by Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue
Everything about Peter Shelton (pristine studio, stunning preparatory drawings, conversation sprinkled with Latin terms) suggests a combination of obsessive technician and daring poet willing to risk it all for an idea. (A case in point, his controversial 2009 commission for the Los Angeles Police Department [LAPD] headquarters.) In his studio, massive shapes in various stages of completion envelop and dwarf the visitor; even unfinished, their physical impact is immediate and kinesthetic. Dramatic, dynamic activation of the viewer’s body and ambient space marks a clear focus that began with Shelton’s earliest ruminations about the boundaries of architecture. He is less willing to pin down meaning.
uheader, 1995–2009. Mixed media, 78 x 28.5 x 28 in.
