Malagasy artist Joël Andrianomearisoa considers his work to be an ongoing series of ever-evolving exercises which explore complex emotional states that we all experience but can’t quite articulate in words. For this exhibition, he presents textile works from his ongoing series Labyrinth of Passions. Labyrinth Summer Act 1 and Labyrinth Autumn Act 2 are formed through the delicate layering of materials and resemble abstract landscapes with the line of the horizon delineated in each by a subtle change of colour in the woven threads. For Andrianomearisoa, the emotionality of the work is very much related to the sensorial experience, the way we relate physically to the materials and anticipate touch. As with all of the artist’s works, the various iterations reflect on a specific moment in time – the time in which they made – while also evoking a sense of the eternal. The line of the horizon, for example, provides a focal point and a sense of structure, dividing the land and sea, but also serves as a visual metaphor for a threshold or a state of meditation. The slow, unfolding narratives of these works are contrasted by the quick, dynamic gestures in a series of drawings by the artist titled History of Roses. Presented as an installation, these works pay homage to the mythology and romance of Andrianomearisoa’s favourite flower through fragments of handwritten text and swirling monochromatic imagery.
Italian artist Bea Bonafini’s interdisciplinary practice similarly draws on the language of mythology, oneiric visions and bodily experiences. For this exhibition she has created a large-scale textile work in which two hybrid, aqueous creatures swirl around one another, their shimmering, scaled bodies creating an almost infinite loop. The work was made using hand-dyed wool and bamboo silk in collaboration with artisans in the hand tufting technique which combines the ancient craft of weaving with modern day technology to create a kind of pixelated effect so that as you approach the work, the image appears to slowly dissolve. Also on show are two of the artist’s sculptural cork paintings, which were inspired by Cosmicomics, a collection of short stories by Italo Calvino which each build an imaginative world around a scientific ‘fact.’ In a similar way, Bonafini brings together organic forms with spiritual imagery to meditate on origin stories. Burst from my lips appears almost like a whirlpool of wave-like forms out of which the shape of hands and two faces appear, while Crush, Crushed comprises a central egg shape surrounded by what looks like two halves of a shell. While the former work creates a feeling of lightness and fluidity through a watery colour palette, the vivid hues in Crush, Crushed suggests a more intense emotional experience – the inner red lining evoking the appearance of blood, or perhaps heat.
