Clearings
Clearings
Art, Interior Design
London, United Kingdom
Comprised of sculpture, painting and works on paper, Clearings is an exhibition by Blue Projects at the always inspiring Blue Mountain School. It considers the creation of space as a site where materials can amass and interact – a surface onto which new activity and thoughts can emerge. The exhibition brings together artists Lydia Gifford, Anna-Bella Papp and Clementine Keith-Roach whose work is concerned with mark-making and process, and the physicality of their material.
New ceramic works by Clementine Keith-Roach are rendered bodily and intimate by the addition of breasts, arms and hands, which animate their classical forms. Across the surfaces of the vessels, paint and clay collide in layers that propose a potential for growth or visual change.
Moving between representation and abstraction, Anna-Bella Papp's sculptures are presented horizontally on a surface. Their tablet-like forms propose a reading of the artist's marks and impressions onto the unfired hand-sculpted clay. The works call to mind materials and realms outside themselves while still insisting on their own physical reality – the confines of their format offering a topography of control and experimentation.
Lydia Gifford's work offers an experience of interrelated objects, consumed surfaces, and textural and physical nuances. Her works capture the traces of her activity, tracking and layering decisions atop another, and explore movement as a vehicle to generate meaning. Objects engage with each other in a palpable rhythm, their tactile presences revealing a choreographed series of encounters.
