LOCATION: OHSH SOUTH
GUEST CURATORS: LUCILE HAEFFLINGER & MICHAEL CHANCE

10.01.24 - 20.01.24

Potato brings together a selection of work relating to the dark blindness of soil and the treasures that are held within it.

All six artists are drawn toward abstraction, yet their work suggests an almost stubborn desire to remain grounded in the tangible solidity of objects; the turning over of a lump in the hand, the grime under the fingernail. Like potatoes, many of the forms that emerge are rounded and roughly textured, yet seem to almost glow from within, to move or pulsate; they are living forms. This is not cold formalism, but a tender, earthy abstraction, where brute materiality seems to gradually hint at the emergence of image.

Nathalie Hollis and Fiona Berry seem to be searching for something unknown, heaping then scratching away at the topsoil of the picture’s surface. Reds and pinks bring a bodily heat to their strange finds. Lucile Haefflinger and Michael Chance are playing on the destruction and rediscovery of known forms. Something familiar is planted, ploughed over and then unearthed as if centuries had passed during its slow transformation. Harry Kincade attempts to unearth a contrasting brutality and tenderness within visceral marks: telling a tale of earthly experience, grounded in the land. Lee Grandjean, with his tortured root-like sculptures, brings crude matter to life. A reassuring warmth emanates from these lumpen beings; alien, yet almost familiar.

ARTISTS:
Fiona Berry, Michael Chance, Lee Grandjean, Lucile Haefflinger, Nathalie Hollis, Harry Kincade