Paloma Proudfoot, The Reminiscence Theatre
Friday Dispatch – 2 December 2022
Paloma Proudfoot, The Reminiscence Theatre
Bosse & Baum, Bussy Constructing
Three massive feminine ceramic figures occupy the partitions of Bosse & Baum. They appear to be confronted with isolation and abandonment. The most important determine, The Reminiscence Theatre, 2022, depicts a huge unfold of pages considered collectively, framing two sculptures, as if the viewer had abruptly opened to this web page. Two arms maintain the guide whereas two vibrant yellow post-it notes mark the pages — may this be important? A girl sporting a inexperienced moss-like gown loosely yanks a rope of thread that graciously unravels between the backbone of the guide, creating branches, twigs, or arteries to kind one other, extra wood-like, creature on the opposite web page. The correspondence between people and nature represents a duality depicting the approaching collectively of the bodily and emotional. The feminine figures look alike which creates an uncanny repetition that these are totally different self-portraits of the artist.
Recollections and recollections are on the core of this exhibition. In There was a whispered story and a shouted one and each have been true, 2022, a determine stands with one hand sheathed inside a pocket as the opposite is left to unpick a thread from a guide on her chest, symbolically near her coronary heart. Reminiscence is offered as soon as extra like an open web page, the place we are able to see a picture on the guide cowl. A determine mendacity in mattress. Paying homage to a illness that pressured the physique to relaxation. On the alternative wall in Stitches, 2022, we see a seated determine on a chair with their legs huge open, sporting a darkish armour-like garment. They’re busy tightening their corset with a big needle. The potential hazard of the precarious needle near her coronary heart creates stress. But, the determine holds the needle with an assurance. Particulars of small steel parts are nailed inside these clay sculptures, remodeling them into cyborgs or puppets, recalling Donna Haraway’s manifesto of a technological posthuman bodily aesthetic.
Paloma Proudfoot created these works by making totally different shapes of clay ‘tiles’ which she then assembles on the wall, nearly like slicing and pasting the weather in numerous combos. There are smaller scale works across the gallery with different symbolic and surreal references. Proudfoot has at all times been enthusiastic about materials and this manner of working recollects assembling patches of fabric collectively. One other supply of inspiration was a big ceramic frieze made by artist Philippa Threlfall in 1972 that depicts the maritime historical past of Greenwich. The sailors and courtiers stand alongside one another, witnessing all the opposite tales that stay untold, forgotten or erased. Proudfoot’s massive robotic ladies stand equally as a reminder that the place historical past can erase particulars, reminiscence can contort actuality. That is why reminiscence and recollection stand in stress collectively, like a large needle near the chest.
Ilaria Puri Purini
Curator of Nationwide Programme
Unit BGC, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, SE15 4ST
Opening Instances: Wednesday – Saturday, 12:00 – 18:00
Exhibition open till 28
