Stretching through the Grundy’s two ground-floor gallery spaces, The Way Things Are is a sculpture, precisely and elegantly constructed in poplar wood that approximates to the form of a pier. Inspired by Victorian lithographs, contemporary architects’ drawings and the artist’s own recollections, The Way Things Are extends the artist’s interest in romantic longing; between desire and lived experience, between memory and fact.
Voss finds something simultaneously prosaic and profound about the British seaside pier. If the coastline is a boundary, a marker for the edge of ordinary experience, then the pier forms a space beyond this.
Temporarily taking up the mantle of Blackpool’s fourth pier, The Way Things Are draws our attention to this town’s built heritage and in particular to Blackpool’s three world-renowned piers. Adding extra significance to the presentation of this work in Blackpool this year is the fact that 2018 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Eugenius Birch, North Pier’s designer.