World-renowned French contemporary artist, Daniel Buren, has recently opened a major installation at Sydney’s Carriageworks, to be exhibited for the next month.

The inspiration for Like Child’s Play (Comme Un Jeu D’Enfant) is derived from the work of Friedrich Fröbel, a German theorist known for establishing the principles of modern education (he literally invented kindergarten), including the creation of wooden building blocks. The work is the fourth in a series of five significant international commissions in a partnership between Carriageworks and Melbourne gallerist Anna Schwartz.

Laid across the cavernous, industrial Carriageworks space in precise increments, the work comprises giant replicas of Fröbel-esque building blocks. There’s blocks everywhere. It’s a block party. Half the installation is painted white and the other in vibrant colours, while a tunnel in the artist’s signature black and white stripes connecting the two worlds.

‘For me, colour is pure thought, and therefore completely inexpressible, every bit as abstract as a mathematical formula or a philosophical concept’, explains Daniel of his colour-blocked installation.

With a career spanning five decades, Daniel is one of the most renowned conceptual artists of our time. His often controversial, always playful work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale more than 10 times (winning the Golden Lion in 1986) and shown at revered institutions including Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Like Child’s Play (Comme Un Jeu D’Enfant)
Daniel Buren
July 7th-August 12th

Carriageworks
245 Wilson Street
Everleigh, New South Wales