NEEDLE IN A CLOUD

About

FOLD Gallery London is excited to announce the inaugural show in our brand new Clerkenwell Gallery.

In celebration of the re - launch there will be a performance by My Sad Captains accompanied by visuals from Jamie Jenkinson

"The idea for the show comes from a moment I had on an airplane recently. Up in the outer layers of our atmosphere, looking down, it was apparent to me that I was looking at two things:

First was the unrelenting blanket of continuous cloud cover below, stretching out in infinite directions, a blanketed cotton carpet beneath and the shadow of the plane.

The other thing was the tiny droplets of condensation on the windows, caused by the coldness of the air around us, and possibly, the warmth of the plane as it cut through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour.

Both extremes together, the micro and the macro - the infinite expanse of the clouds and sky, and the total, intimate, objectivity of the water droplets reflecting the planes shadow upon the clouds - caused a moment of realization so disconcerting that, I knew if I thought about it any further, I would focus the moment too much, where flying in a plane would become too real and I would become afraid of flying.

With this in mind, I thought about how interesting it would be to think about a group of works in the same way. To begin by focusing on the totality of its obfuscation, the cloudiness of it all, but then to locate its pure objective constraints, its water droplets, its brush strokes, its physicality.

So out of this comes 'Needle in a Cloud', the sharp and the vast, the precise and the deliberately obscure."

Text by Dan Davis. Show curated in conjunction with Dan Davis, Nick Goss and FOLD Gallery

'Needle In A Cloud' is an exhibition by twelve artists whose work on first appearance seems to be incongruous in nature. Mediums range from craft influenced totemic objects, to sound installations, to abstract visual effect films, to oil on canvas, and also encompasses work with a more formalist approach and aesthetic.

There is, however, one overriding commonality which brings order to the melee. It is a matter of calm focus. The shard which pierces through all the artists work and practices is the unquestionable refusal to compromise and their ability to embrace their chosen medium. They each push through constraints of material, to work with and ultimately celebrate certain aspects of the mundane and subversive. This creates a serene and confident atmosphere, which (if for only a moment) draws the artists and their work together for this show.