‘The Fold’ George Paton Gallery
6 - 14 April 2022

In response to the (in)finite material and bodily matter surrounding what it means to transform through space and motion, artists negotiate the motivating forces that drive and decompose movement and flexions. Inorganic and organic, materially and bodily, mechanical, spiritual and relational; a fold’s complex system of interactions seek to dimmish and reduce, however everchanging nature of its pleated matter, in extension, caves without limits. Each artist, like a pleat, exceeds the fold in their work as a means to contract, release, dilate, unfold, divide, extend, combine, layer, resist, subside, collapse, deduct or invert, contemplative of the infinite labyrinths and vibrations of layered matter. This elastic force of the body and material alike, is determined in hardness and fluidity. Comparatively, works consider the finite body to the infinites of material through the cohering, unifying parts that ultimately form the tunic of ‘The Fold’.
Curated by Lilly Skipper. 

“Shelley Spangler’s red twisting, tangling, looping knots that unravel and curl inwards and outwards around blank space, inverting the expected relations between frame and framed.” - Radio Fodder, Farrago Magazine. 

Tethering’ hard ground print with red ink, 48 x 61 cm.

Utilising the knots motif, I enjoy the fact that all the lines connect back and are essentially a very disorganised infinity loop. Yet they still have a recognisable quality to them. They can convey the very immaterial concept of infinity but still appear organic and almost bodily. The associations that they draw vary from infinity to something as mundane as shoelaces, worms, or guts. With the knowledge that the gallery space will soon be changing I felt it important to have the presence of the space felt in the formation of ‘Tethering.’ The work embraces the fluidity and everchanging nature of space, of ‘The Fold’.