- Venue
- The Malt Cross
- Location
- East Midlands
The featured works of Sarah Baum, Rebecca Davies, Poppie Jaconelli and Caroline McDougall respond to the theme of “converse” through indirect encounters, regarding subjects of kinetic yet static, fluid and solid, and natural and manmade.
Entering the space, we are overwhelmed by the vast amounts of earthy, cardboard coils, inconsistently positioned on the floor. The modest, repeated structures attempt to blend and adapt to the wooden surface and irregular wall, as if simulating a coastline.
A restricted route for the viewer to navigate around is apparent, forming a barrier, drawing attention to the architecture and emptiness of the walls.
The distance between the viewer and the constructions encourages the audience to crouch down to the same level. Davies’s intimately spaced cardboard structures are not fixed, with the potential to transform and continue to grow over the duration of the exhibition, suggesting the title, ‘Ephemerality’. The forms resemble rosebuds, in the process of sprouting, yet the manmade, corrugated cardboard and diverse shapes and sizes, emphasizes the absence of straight lines in nature.
A childlike quality is established, by a craft element, forming tension, as we desire to touch and sit on the playful structures. The process is emphasized, by the handmade characteristic. Attention is drawn to a theme of recycling, due to the everyday, often disregarded, ephemeral cardboard.
My eyes are next drawn to Jaconelli’s ‘The colour blue represents emptiness, the sky and sea – the intangible’, positioned in the centre-right of the room. What seems the most accessible piece within the exhibition ironically refers to the unreachable. Two sculptural forms are placed adjacently to one another.
A vibrant, viscous, blue slime appears to have solidified, in the process of dripping down from the raw bark of a tree onto the ground. The mixture proposes a manifestation from a sack of potatoes amongst the second sculpture titled ‘Untitled; Ultra(marine,soil)’, connecting with Davies’s elements of growth and nature.
There is a thirst to touch and smell the alien substance, as it taints the organic materials. The bark creates a barrier, protecting the layers of refined MDF. The manmade wooden forms are balanced at irregular intervals, forming a tension. Conflict between the rawness and refined, the natural and manmade, the banal and unfamiliar, is present.
The title refers to Yves Klein, distinguished by his particular monochrome of blue. Immediately, a theme of femininity is raised, due to his use of female bodies as a human paintbrush. Masculinity is questioned, as the orthodoxly woodworked “plinth” contrasts with the curvature of the raw bark.
The colour blue may be a metaphor for “the void” suggesting the conflict of power between natural and manmade, and masculinity and femininity, (which is unattainable.)
There is a longing for the fluidity in Jaconelli’s work to continue to grow and expand. Will the static drips fall? Ironically, the fluid is textured with closer inspection.
Jaconelli’s work directs the viewer to the corner of the room, where fabric canvas is arranged to drop from a point, flowing out towards the ground. Does the structure imitate a waterfall? The 2D becomes 3D, painting transforms into sculpture. The title ‘Untangram’ refers to geometric forms that are dispersed and layered as a painting onto canvas fabric, reforming the conventional tangram.
What is the only piece in the room to have merging colours paradoxically draws attention to negative space around the coloured shapes and forms. The idea of emptiness is apparent, as linked to Davies’s sculpture, directing the audience to unused space and the overlooked.
The fluid arrangement in McDougall’s sculpture, suggesting something organic, conflicts with the nonexistence of geometric forms in nature; the three works by McDougall are spaced out in the room to form the three points of a triangle.
The other two works appear to have a more evident conversation with one another, due to the profile of a familiar face. ‘Incongruent Blue’, a triangular image, is positioned to emphasize a jagged geometric form, abstracting and distorting the image of the face, drawing attention to particular areas.
An exposure element occurs as the whole image is presented the conventional way up, revealing the process, however the black and white image converses with Baum’s adjacent work.
The act of pouring a liquid seems to echo between Baum and Jaconelli; water has dripped down the images on the wall, in the process of crinkling in Baum’s ‘FLOODING, sorry for the inconvenience’. Water appears to feed the images in order to transform. The idea of growth is continued by the use of baking trays, suggesting the production of transformation.
Three trays on the floor are filled with water, combined with layers of prints as if in the process of developing. The prints converse with the images positioned on the wall, aligned with one another. The position of the photo in the room correlates to the location of the landscape where the images were taken.
The monochrome prints reveal a stream/river surrounded by trees and a fence creating geometric forms. ‘FLOODING, sorry for the inconvenience’ also surfaces a banality, as the crinkle formed by the water physically interacting with the images, determines more interest and conversation than the content of the prints. The darker prints emphasize the interaction between the water and the images, forming beautiful shapes and patterns, as the 2D becomes 3D, relating back to ‘Untangram’. Chance is questioned, as the crinkles cannot be controlled, similar to the inability to control the motion of the substance in Jaconelli’s sculptures.
Photography seems to replace and represent an image, an image of water, the ability to recycle and conserve water, no waste involved. This subtly ties together Davies’s and Baum’s work.
To summarize, ‘Con-verse’ is humble yet alluring, as it flows throughout the space, generating dialogues, forming tension, as we desire to touch and interact. Water is echoed throughout, suggesting movement and growth. An element of spontaneity is apparent, due to the unpredictable and irregular arrangements. Contradictions of organic and manmade are consistently instigated. All works connect with one another, presenting a successful, carefully considered exhibition.
