The Wick List

Viewing Rachel Kneebone, ‘399 Days’, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Wick - Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13. Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

Above Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13. Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

The Wick - Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13, (detail). Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

Above Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13, (detail). Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

Above Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13. Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

Above Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13, (detail). Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days
Chapel, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
10 July 2021 – 24 April 2022

Known for her intensely rich and complex porcelain sculptures, to describe Rachel Kneebone’s ‘399 Days’ as her most ambitious work to date is quite an accolade. Named after the length of time it took to make, this contemporary masterpiece is over five-metres in height and comprises 63 exterior panels, balancing exquisite detail with monumental scale – a characteristic feature of the artist’s work.

Now on display in Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s 18th-century chapel, this unique setting brings the serene grandeur of Kneebone’s sculpture to life. Her work alludes the human body in intricate and often fragmented detail, often depicting limbs alongside floral and orb shapes that unravel the human experience. The towering size of 399 Days – handmade by the artist, itself a reminder of our physical strengths and capabilities – invites us to consider what it means to inhabit a body.

What makes Kneebone’s work so compelling, particularly in this space, are the imperfections and unpredictabilities that result from the firing process. ‘I am quite reassured when a work explodes because I think that means I am pushing the boundaries of the material,’ says Kneebone. ‘My work moves around metamorphosis, change and simultaneous states, so nothing about it is fixed.’ 399 Days has been widely exhibited, but its latest appearance at Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a reminder of its shifting, expansive nature.