Known for his high-profile sculptures including I Goat (2010) in London’s Spitalfields, The Southwark Memorial to War and Reconciliation (2018) and, in Edinburgh, the Covid memorial at the Royal College of Surgeons, entitled Your Next Breath (2022), Let’s Forget sees Hunter invert traditional monumental values with unexpected uses of scale, material and subject matter.
His works open up questions for the viewer rather than providing answers. Despite what some to believe an outdated status, the traditional monument continues to act as an important reference point in contemporary art, a focal point for public discourse either as an emblem for contested values or as a rallying point for societal change.
Hunter seeks to embrace this ambiguous reading of monumental words, encouraging the viewer toward ethical and moral engagement. His artwork is traditional without becoming conventional; on repeated viewing we find ourselves questioning the illusion of familiarity of his subject matter – things we think we recognise seem to be withheld at the same time. His sculptures are subtly provocative, speculative and, with time on viewing, allow something newly relevant to emerge.
Kenny Hunter comments, This exhibition for The Fine Art Society can be seen as a continuation of my ongoing efforts to deconstruct the monument as a permanent symbol of political and historic progress and instead re-present it through my work as a form in flux, open to varied interpretation. Whilst resolutely committed to a contemporary reflection of current conditions, it also cross-references ancient archetypes with post-war modernist attempts to create unifying humanist, monumental forms.