And She Built a Crooked House

About

This exhibition is free, but booking is essential. Click here to book.

And She Built a Crooked House by Gemma Anderson-Tempini fills the rooms and garden at Burton Grange, a Victorian house in Far Headingley, Leeds. With this multifaceted installation, the artist takes audiences on a journey through the fourth spatial dimension that is part-factual, part-historical and part-autobiographical.    

An imagined space popularised in the nineteenth century, the fourth spatial dimension sits alongside the commonly-held understanding of a fourth dimension of time and has provided fertile ground for creativity and innovation for generations. In addition to physics, explorers of higher spatial dimensions span the fields of maths, art, literature, cinema and computing, with impact in quotidian places from children’s playgrounds to Victorian living rooms. 

Central features of fourth-dimensional theory include turning inside out, mirroring, and being in more than one place at the same time. These ideas resonate with the artist’s personal experience as a mother of twins and are recurring motifs in this body of work.

Anderson-Tempini synthesises large and complicated datasets through the act of drawing, bringing a unique perspective on how we relate to and understand our surroundings. In an age of rapid technological advancement, she champions the necessity of a human connection with our environment. Whether zooming in on the transformation of an embryo or giving form to the Big Bang, a desire to bring visual clarity to the nature of existence is a thread that runs throughout her practice.

For her latest project Gemma Anderson-Tempini deftly brings together cutting-edge mathematical research, art, and motherhood to explore and make sense of personal human experiences through the lens of spatial thinking.