Wrapping stuff up in the name of art is nothing new: Man Ray was bundling sewing machines in fabric and torsos in rope almost 100 years ago, Christo & Jean Claude have been covering trees and buildings since the 1960s. A new incarnation of this disquieting and eerie process has arrived in the form of a vast installation by Venezuelan artist Pepe López in London’s Fitzrovia Chapel, on show until 26 October. The piece, entitled Crisálida (Chrysalis in English), spans eighteen metres in length and sees 200 objects from the artist’s Caracas family home including a car, a motorcycle, a piano, an urn, books, tools, toys and maps wrapped in polyethylene film. It all makes for an unnerving tableau: objects feel alive and present but are mummified, as the artist explores ideas around collective memory forged by how objects are arranged and uprooted.
