Alice Anderson (b. 1972)

A shimmering ritualistic object two metres in diameter, 181 Kilometres takes its title from the distance that Anderson walked to weave the entire sphere with copper colour thread during 16 consecutive performative days. ‘The works that I do involved performances,’ she explains. ‘Since the beginning I’ve experienced my body through movement and today the wire is for me an extension of it.’ Those actions typically combine primitive and modern: underlining the intensely physical nature of sculpture, this work makes manifest the artist’s labour of walking, transmuting 181,000 metres of exertion into a geometrical shape of iridescent perfection. The conductive qualities of copper emphasise the work’s empathetic power, represent the connectivity of a digital world and provide a means for the artist of recording items through bodily movement.