Anna-Bella Papp. ‘Plans for an unused land’

About

Anna-Bella Papp’s exhibition at Modern Art features a series of new individual sculptures that, consistent with her characteristic format, are hand-sculpted, tablet-like forms made from fired clay, presented on long trestle tables in one narrative. Papp’s works move between representation and abstraction, each series exploring a different set of ideas through various techniques of sculpting and mark-making, all the while seemingly aware of and contained within the regular confines of their objecthood.

The focus of this new series is on a piece of land in the artist’s home of Romania, which may eventually become part of her inheritance. Each work becomes a means for speculation on the potential uses of this piece of land; the marks, grooves, and impressions on each work’s clay surface becoming something akin to an architectural plan, or an image of landscapes as seen from above. The series becomes a personal musing on not only legacy and time, but also on our relationship to the geography around us, in both the abstract and the real. 

The exhibition includes a text written by Papp that accompanies this body of work.