Track, 2026
Printed ink and acrylic on canvas, pine wood, PLA, concrete, PVA, water, filler, tealights
148 x 32 x 91 cm
Track (2026) resembles a train bridge coming out from a wall.
The sculpture references ideas of industrial evolution and reflects on the infrastructure that much of our contemporary world has, in the past, and continues to, rely upon to grow and evolve. Train tracks are highly regulated pathways, designed to dictate direction, speed and flow with little room for deviation. As such, they function as a physical manifestation of control. The work reflects on how movement, time and behaviour are shaped by larger systems. Historically, railways have been central to industrial development, particularly during the Industrial Revolution, where they enabled the rapid transportation of raw materials, goods and labour across expanding territories. Trains became essential to industries such as mining and manufacturing, accelerating production and fundamentally reshaping economies and landscapes. They represent a shift toward mechanised time, standardised schedules, efficiency and synchronisation, marking a turning point in how human activity became increasingly regulated and optimised.
The bridge itself carries symbolic weight as a connector between places, a structure that enables transition and passage. Reimagined as a static, possibly fragmented object, it suggests interruption or failure within these systems of connection. The piece is 3D printed and covered in layers of concrete. Removed from its functional context, the bridge becomes an artefact of suspended movement, an image of time paused or disrupted, aligning with my ongoing investigation into decay, control and the instability of systems we rely upon.
The work is part of an ongoing series of works by Bob Bicknell-Knight, collectively titled Altars (2024 – ongoing).
Altars is a series of wall-based paintings embedded within elaborate frames, revolving around time, video game worlds and control.
The altar series is made up of hybrid paintings of clocks from different video games. The works are hybrid paintings, beginning as digital photographs that Bicknell-Knight takes of clocks within different video games. The images are digitally edited before being printed onto canvas, stretched and painted onto with acrylic paint, with the offline artist’s hand interacting with the original digital image. The painting method explores the tension between the digital and physical sides of Bicknell-Knight’s practice and is a collaboration between his digital and physical working methods
The paintings are effectively clocks frozen in time, mimicking how time in video games is often fabricated and stretched, never usually corresponding to time within the physical world. These works are embedded within frames that have been digitally modelled, usually using Google Sketchup, an architectural modelling programme, 3D printed and covered in layers of concrete.
Concrete plays a central role in Bicknell-Knight’s practice, as both a material and a conceptual device. It is used to conceal the origins of his 3D printed works, masking their precision beneath a coarse, industrial surface. In doing so, the work resists immediate legibility, obscuring how it was made and complicating distinctions between digital and the physical space. Concrete introduces weight, permanence and a sense of history to these objects that originate in immaterial, virtual environments, grounding them within a material reality tied to labour, extraction and construction. The frames resemble and reference various elements referencing architecture, timekeeping and subtle religious symbolism tied to faith, power and control.
In Track’s case, however instead of a traditional frame, the sculptural part of the work resembles a train bridge, as detailed above, created utilising the same techniques as the wall-based sculptures in the series, hosting a hybrid painting and several candles embedded within its structure.
Accompanying the frozen clock are lit candles, transforming the works into working time pieces, being randomly replaced during a given exhibition period. In some cases, instead of live candles, electric candles have been used when exhibiting the works.
Track includes a clock documented within The Sims 4 (2014), a video game where you control the lives of virtual people, customarily modelled after your own family, in a simulated copy of the physical world. Bicknell-Knight has spent countless hours playing the games from The Sims series as a child, and has previously made work with, and about, the games in the series, for example in Autonomy 2.0 (2016).
Track has been included in the following exhibitions:
– Real-Time, curated by Petia Mihaylova. At Cable Depot, Sofia, BG, 4th – 30th July 2026.