Objective Form and Carmela Gross’ Roda Gigante: Value, Waste and Weight

Join us for the latest in our ARTFUL talks series, with speaker Gail Day (Professor of Art History and Critical Theory in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies).

What happens when an artwork strongly grounded in one context moves to another? The consensus has long been that the work must be diminished in some way – becoming a mere copy, abstracted, and emptied of its animating content. But what if we ask questions not only of ‘site specificity’ but also of ‘historical specificity’?

The talk attends to Carmela Gross’ striking, large-scale installation Roda Gigante (Big Wheel), tracing its passage from its first exhibition at Porto Alegre’s Farol Santander in 2019 to its reiteration in Sao Paulo’s SESC Pompeia in 2024.

By exploring Gross’ imagined dialogue with architect Lina Bo Bardi and the Brazilian debates about ‘objective form’, might the 2024 iteration deepen Roda Gigante's specificity and charge?

About the speaker

Gail Day is Professor of Art History and Critical Theory at the University of Leeds. Her 2010 book, Dialectical Passions: Negation and Art Theory (Columbia University Press) was shortlisted for the Isaac and Tamara Deutsche Prize. She has just published Amphibious Realities: The Documentary Poetics of Allan Sekula, co-authored with Steve Edwards (Verso, 2025), a 'Best Book of 2025' listing in Library Journal.

More information

This event is part of ARTFUL – a new series of public lunchtime talks organised by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.

The aim of the series is to bring together students, postgraduate researchers and staff to showcase our culture of vibrant research and creative practice across the school and beyond. Taking place on Mondays during termtime, speakers will include researchers, artists and practitioners.

Whilst primarily aimed at our school community, anyone interested in the series is welcome to join us. There is no need to book – please just turn up.

Find out about all ARTFUL talks in the series.

For more information, please email Mark Thorley at M.Thorley1@leeds.ac.uk.

Directions to the venue

See the campus map for location of the Liberty Building.

Directions (facing away from Parkinson steps): Follow the path to your right then turn right underneath the link building. Go all the way through campus until you reach the Clarendon Road entrance. Cross over at the traffic lights onto Moorland Road. Follow the road down. The Liberty Building is on your left.

Go through the main entrance and go straight ahead though two sets of double doors. Lecture Theatre LG.06 is situated on the lower ground floor. 

Accessibility information for the lecture theatre can be found here.

Image

Carmela Gross, Roda Gigante [Big Wheel], at SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, 2024. Photo: João Nitsche. Courtesy of the artist.