70 Show reviews
Safe as Milk Arusha Gallery, 19th - 21st July 2021 After a successful Edinburgh edition, Arusha Gallery presents Safe as Milk London, an in person show of work by artists commenting on the habitual relationship with hyper capitalism and food culture. The exhibition does well to open a conversation about and highlight the carnivalesque and momentous nature of food today, which has become a complex daily challenge. Food consumption, already conditioned in us by upbringing, schooling, inherited and experienced traumas, religious rites and moral inclinations, is increasingly present in the visual realm via Instagram and other social media platforms. Visual recipes and photographs of food from film, literature, advertising, gourmet magazines, news reports and public health literature seen often through the glossy lights of our screens become pseudo-por-
nographic thirst traps for our senses which we further intellectualise to set rules of conduct for our psyche and body. Tensions occur within our relationship with food, as we negotiate the messages around food perpetuated in our current age. Restrictive eating exists in a direct clash with living in a late capitalistic, hyper-consumerist society, constantly being encouraged to over-indulge, over-buy and gorge. A duality is born, creating unparalleled difficulties surrounding food and health. This dichotomy is creating a completely unmanageable attitude towards food and mindful consumption, which is infinitely interesting to dissect within art as Food reveals itself as a taboo, being both pleasurable and shameful at once.
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Georgia Stephenson Patio Project (June — September 2020) Screening Sculptures (June — September 2021) Sculpture, best suited to the privilege of physical proximity, has suffered tremendously at the hands of our now year-long shift to digital spectatorship. Lockdown saw the audience for three-dimensional practices dangerously dwindle, as viewing art became tied to the screen and Instagram gave rise to the ultimate 2D echo-chamber. Independent curator Georgia Stephenson recognized early in the pandemic the need to represent and support three-dimensional practices, particularly those of emerging artists. She launched the Patio Project in June 2020 to give a much needed lifeline to sculpture proposals jettisoned by degree show closures. In the back garden of her South East London flat, Georgia created a modest but innovative sanctuary for new sculpture, offering a stage for three-dimensional works to quietly shine on a bespoke “patio plinth.” The project was supported by the Freelands Foundation Emergency Fund and eight selected artists from a UK-wide open call were given a small grant and technical help to realize their proposal. Each piece was installed for a week at the curator’s home, open to bookable
BEYOND THE RING AND THIMBLE
appointments. In the end, the project showcased some exceptional and diverse work from across the country, with highlights including a decorative exploration of Chinoiserie furniture by Hannah Lim (Edinburgh College of Art), a mystical faux wishing-well by Eleanor Mclean (UCA Farnham) and a frustrated gothic steel flower vase by Jordi Clotet (Chelsea College of Art). This June Georgia returned to present Screening Sculptures, a similarly poised project, this time teaming up with Ladies Drawing Club — a small independent project based in St-Petersburg, Russia. An open call for female-identifying artists across the UK brought together a fantastic mix of emerging artists each finding new ways to translate their sculpture practices to the digital realm. The landscape-driven motifs of Fanny Gicquel and Emily Stapleton Jefferies particularly stand out, both sublimating a yearning for the outside into a palpable sense of unknown exteriority. The project is now live on the Ladies Drawing Club website. www.ladiesdrawingclub.com www.stephensongeorgia.com
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