Ceal Floyer: A Handbook

Those who experience the oeuvre of Ceal Floyer (*1968), who has lived for many years in Berlin, for the first time may initially be surprised, irritated, and ultimately delighted. She plays with conventional patterns of perception in a highly sophisticated way, piercing through them with a keen sense of irony and the simplest of means. Her works are productive irritations whose inherent logic prompts an open process of seeing and thinking. With her work Light Switch (1992) she hoodwinks us by showing us the photograph of a light switch at a place in the room where one might be located. Light illusions of deception and disappointment also turn up in later works such as Overhead Projection (2006). In this case, a light bulb seems to be suspended from the ceiling of the space that in reality is lying on the projection stage of an overhead projector.

This is the first publication to systematically document sixty-three works selected by the artist herself. Mark Godfrey and Sergio Edelsztein—two established authorities on Ceal Floyer’s art—and her fellow artist and friend Tacita Dean examine her oeuvre and inspire us to reflect on it.