Body

Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery 533 Old York Road Wandsworth
Body image
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Event has ended
This event ended on Thursday 21st of December 2017
Admission
Free
Venue Information
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (Wandsworth)
Old York Road, SW18 1TG
Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Wandsworth Town 0.08 miles

MAHA AHMED, ANNIE ATTRIDGE, HELOÏSE DELÈGUE, RACHEL GARRARD, ANNA ILSLEY AND KATJA LARSSON

BODY

17 NOVEMBER - 21 DECEMBER 2017

Private view: 16th November 6:30-9 pm

We live in a world of opposites – contrasting and complementing forces, the pushes and pulls of hard and soft, the structured and the organic, real and imagined, masculine and feminine. The group exhibition Body (17 November – 21 December) at Kristin Hjellegjerde, brings together the works of six female artists whose practices examine these paradigms, celebrating the joyous and messy, the secrecy and intimacy of our relationships with each other, and with ourselves. Materials, thoughts and private and communal histories are juxtaposed to raise questions about sexuality and relationships, probe established norms and the intimate worlds that exist within each of us.

Maha Ahmed explores the identity of self in consequence of the other. Growing up in the context of Pakistan, where concealing is seen as a way of self-preservation, Ahmed uses nature as a portrait. In works such as a bird meandering in a lucid dream, she seeks to unravel the line between space and object, creating fluidity within assumed realities. Her work questions the formation of collective narratives that stem from gender, race and religious beliefs. She builds fictional spaces that are reminiscent of natural forms to confront the validity of presumed truths. By using the dry brush technique that originated from the illuminated manuscripts of Persia, she calls on the familiar but caveats it with a contemporary twist.

In Annie Attridge’s playful porcelain series, should of could of would of, we are presented with scenes and snippets of shapes and forms of imagined or real lustful trysts the artist should have done, could have done, would have done, or even might have done. A continued loved affair with porcelain plays out through erotic imagery, using avatars and the female form to describe the symbiosis of sexual and romantic consciousness, of love and conflict. Geometrically structured bases are placed under each sculpture, reminiscent of wobbly scaffolding, but still strong at the core. The sculptures and bases then balance on top of the organically constructed concrete plinths to create towers of, or to love, romantic hedonist ideals presented ‘on a pedestal’.

The female form, sexuality and desire are also at the centre of Anna Ilsley’s colourful, figurative works. Her paintings and drawings probe the confusion of arcane ideals of female chastity, sin and sexiness in contemporary culture. Her series, The Wedding Album, for example, illustrates both her fascination and terror of the expectations surrounding such an occasion, and the juxtaposition between idealism and failure within such a traditional pretext of feminine beauty and image. She attempts to disrupt sweeping hypocrisies towards the female form by exposing the nuances of female experience, c

Tags: Art

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