Simon Starling: Metamorphology

British conceptual artist Simon Starling (born 1967) interrogates the histories of art and science, as well as other subjects such as economic and environmental issues, through a wide variety of media including film, installation and photography. Published for his first survey exhibition at a major American museum, Simon Starling: Metamorphology highlights a fundamental principle of Starling’s practice: an almost alchemistic conception of the transformative potential of art, or of transformation as art. The Turner Prize–winning artist’s working method constitutes recycling, both literally and figuratively: repurposing existing materials for new, artistic aims; retelling existing stories to produce new historical insights; linking, looping and remaking. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in tandem with the Arts Club of Chicago, and features essays by MCA Chicago senior curator Dieter Roelstraete, Arts Club of Chicago executive director Janine Mileaf in collaboration with Simon Starling, and Tate Modern curator Mark Godfrey.