DIG

Dig is based on a sculptural project in an abandoned, overgrown site in central London by Daniel Silver.This book features extensive photographs of the figurative sculptures and fragments which populated the site, as if uncovered though some kind of archaeological endeavour.Made in a range of materials including marble and plaster and terracotta, the figures have been worked by hand, modelled and then eroded and deformed.Taking some of the idols in Freud's collection of antiquities as a starting point, Silver's sculptures appear to be both ancient and modern.Tom Morton's essay excavates some of the different layers in Silver's project, archaeological, sculptural and psychological.Published on the occasion of the exhibition Daniel Silver: Dig with Artangel at The Odeon Site, Grafton Way, London, 12 September - 3 November 2013.