“Hard Wood and Heavy Water” an exhibition
Jaguar Shoes
32-34 Kingsland Road,
Shoreditch, London E2 8DA
PV: 30th January 2014. 7pm till late
31st January – 16th March 2014.
This is my first solo show in London. You can read some official information about it here. Its sort of about living at the end of the world.
Hard Wood and Heavy Water' takes place along some half-imagined coastline where two houses sit, on opposite sides of a wind-beaten cove. In one lives a man and in the other, a woman. But this is not a love story. Their lives will not collide, the pieces of the puzzle will not happily fall into place. Instead they cross over, pass by one another, peacefully; firewood left at the fork in the road, a box of candles during a powercut, whisky on the doorstep at christmas. Theirs is a story of silent reassurance, the comfort born of seeing a light flicker across the inky black curve of the sea.
This place feels like the end of the world, the last point before the flat of the ocean drops off and disappears. Skies are bigger here, the weather asserts itself with shameless confidence. It is hard to say how these two people came to be here, whether they simply always were, or if they retreated from something, the world perhaps. Maybe it isn't even a 'retreat' but a challenge- squaring up to world, taking as much air in your lungs as you can, filling your greedy eyes with it all.
