Where do we look to find art? Could it be human breath on the lid of a piano, its fleeting presence caught in a photograph? The tracks made by a bicycle riding through a puddle of water, round and round in a circle? An orange placed in an apartment window? Or a human skull, transformed by a hallucinatory, checkerboard pattern pencilled directly onto its surface?
In the hands of Mexican-born artist Gabriel Orozco (b.1962), the apparently unpromising materials of everyday life are transformed, with the lightest touch, into something poignant, humorous or poetic, challenging us to question our received ideas about art and see the world afresh.
With more than 100 colour illustrations, six key works examined in depth and a new interview with Orozco, this is the perfect introduction to one of the most creative and stimulating artists at work today.
Jessica Morgan is The Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art, at Tate Modern.