Re-enchanted Matter

About

Curated by Hot Desque

Kara Chin, Lizzy Drury, Kira Freije, Kay Gesai, Egle Jauncems, Neena Percy, Godai Sahara, Maxima Smith, Lara Smithson, Plastique Fantastique, Korallia Stergides, Elly Thomas, Tom Worsfold                

‘Re-Enchanted Matter’ explores contemporary notions of metamorphosis: the changing in form or nature of a thing or person into a different one. From the completed act itself, to being caught midway through the process, the artworks expose the desire to enact, and the process of, transformation.

With the artist as conjurer, matter and ideas are morphed from one state into another: formlessness into representation; the inanimate into the animate; words into myth. Pigment, graphite, steel and amber are manipulated to create seemingly fragmented worlds within worlds. Places to be entered, inhabited or internalised.

Historically, tales of metamorphosis are born from moments of social transition and flux. In the context of recent dramatic global transformation, the shifting ground beneath our feet opens up a vacuum from which spring up alternative visions of the world. Metamorphosis today may not exist in the form of Ovidian divine punishments, yet the constantly shifting nature of things and their meanings persists. ‘Re-Enchanted Matter’ explores the always-present potential for transformation latent in everyone and everything.

Kindly Supported by Arts Council England