Slip

Slip is an exhibition of work by collaborators Julia Crabtree and William Evans. Entering the gallery, I am confronted by Gullet, 2017. There is a rug I can walk on, a carpet with a pattern reminiscent of a hypercolour t-shirt I owned in the 1980s; seeping colours, modelled on a smoke-filled room- a digital image made physical. Glass vessels containing tiny plant life with roots exposed rest on the rug, alongside ceramic coils in pale pastel shades. Curves are everywhere in here. Large pillows painted or stained are tucked behind the rug as it creeps up the side of the room. There are three coated metal structures that could be the legs of intrepid explorers prowling across the surface. Separately in the space, Heaves, 2021, comprises yellow glass structures suggestive of organisms emerging from the ground. Their shape mimics the folds of a pillow leaning against the wall with the aid of metal rod, part of Gullet.

The artists recognise the body as an ecosystem and engage with craft processes as a rejection of screen life, our main means of accessing information in the modern age. In the second room, ceramic objects could be seats without sitters (Pores, 2021). I am struck by the delicious doing-nothingness of all of the sculptures in this exhibition. The use of craft processes crosses into fine art and perceived flaws and failures (or serendipitous surprises) are retained and celebrated.

https://www.henry-moore.org/whats-on/2021/09/17/julia-crabtree-and-william-evans