It was very much a family affair, albeit rather a high end one, when Conrad Shawcross cooked a sit-down dinner for supporters of the Contemporary Art Society last night (23 February) in his east London, studio and home.
Not only did Conrad whip up a vat of his now legendary venison stew, but his wife Carolina produced the pre-dinner cheese appetizers. Her fellow Italian, and Contemporary Art Society patron, Fabiana Bond provided wine direct from her father’s vineyard in Chianti.
The 84-strong crowd sat surrounded by Shawcross’s sculptures and were also treated to some live action by one of them, when the artist-composer Mira Calix joined forces with a Shawcross robot-sculpture to perform her piece called “if then while for”. Part of Shawcross’s The ADA Project, the composition had been written and choreographed especially for this robotic encounter, and also incorporated a lament by the soprano Charmian Bedford. Then, as if this wasn't enough, as a grand finale Shawcross produced a giant tetrahedral cake whose geometric shape features in much of his work.
All in all, a grand evening that—with the additional help of Shawcross offering the chance to purchase a new editioned work—raised £70,000 for CAS to continue its invaluable work in acquiring works of art for its museum members.
