Tangled toes, twisted ears

About

Through a new body of work created in dialogue, both artists explore the act of storytelling. Dissecting the linear narratives to which their practices and characters have been bound, they in turn reveal an unrestricted freedom of identity.

Both artists' practices are rooted in heritage, Payne’s being oral tradition and Laila Tara H’s miniature painting, which forms a large part of their cross-over. Payne examines Indian folklore, carrying these stories through her practice and nurturing them into her own visions. Her hybrid ceramic sculptures are adorned with jewelry and textiles, which act as cultural signifiers, shapeshifting between matriarchal humanoids, transpersonal artefacts and animalistic performers.

Laila Tara H similarly carries repetition in her paintings, the same figures and symbols have permeated her practice and become a personal visual lexicon. Infused with technique and imagery from Indo-Persian miniature painting, symbolic forms and multiple, concurrent narratives punctuate her works as she explores the body and the self, through experiments in scale, texture and negative space.

As the two describe, “speaking together felt like bringing the works home to family because they are, at their core, stemming from the same intangible place, that of unwinding, deconstructing and reconstructing heritage.” Throughout the exhibition, in both its making and the works themselves, an exchange occurs. Stories are retold and reshaped as conversations play out between cultures, generations, friends, strangers or internally with oneself.

Anousha Payne (b. 1991, Southampton, UK) lives and works in London. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts with a BFA in 2014. Solo exhibitions include As She Laughs (with Anna Perach), Cooke Latham Gallery, London (2022); and here she dwells, indigo+madder, London (2020). Recent group exhibitions and residencies include Body en Thrall, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Rugby, UK (2022); An Ode to Orlando, Marcelle Joseph Projects at Pi Arts, London (2022); Hawala (curated by Shezad Dawood), Paradise Row Projects, London (2021); Beyond Skin, Tube Culture Hall, Milan (2021); Vessels; on bodily fluids, Alkinois, Athens (2021); Bathing Nervous Limbs, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh (2021); The Fores Project, London (2021) and Villa Lena, Tuscany (2019).

Laila Tara H (b. 1995, London, UK) lives and works in London. She received her MA in Persian and Indian Miniature painting from The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in 2019. Recent solo exhibitions include Duck Duck Goose, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London (2022); Vexilloid, O Gallery, Tehran (2021); Sky-Circles (with Anusheh Zia), indigo+madder, London (2021); and Am I?, V.O. Curations, London (2021). Recent group exhibitions and residencies include Legacy Series: FUTURE, Arteeast, online (2021); Nourishment Projects, V.O. Curations, London (2020); So Good So Close, Numeroventi, Florence, Italy (2020); Dance First Think Later, General Practice Gallery, Lincoln, UK (2020); and Casa Balandra, Mallorca (2020).