Hedwig Barry: Here Is Where We Meet

NIROX Sculpture Park, Johannesburg
22/02/2022–13/03/2022

About Hedwig Barry.  

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Download small version of the catalogue (10.4 MB)

View the exhibition on Artsy. 

Press Release:

FORMS Gallery and NIROX Sculpture Park  are pleased to present Here Is Where We Meet, a solo exhibition by Hedwig Barry.

Barry’s first solo exhibition, Here Is Where We Meet, is a collection of  sculptures and paintings completed during her seven-week residency at the NIROX Sculpture Park.

The exhibition centres around new Crumple sculptures, large-scale three-dimensional works made from massive sheets of crumpled metal welded together and then painted  to create complex and enigmatic forms.

The Crumple series dramatises the relationship between force, scale and fragility, drawing attention to the simultaneous structural resilience and vulnerability of the work’s primary material, aluminium sheets. Barry’s sculptures explore the relationship between destruction and preservation, force and form: the works were initially inspired by crumpled up paper, and then invisible  “crumple zones” in cars – areas in the bodies of cars which are designed to buckle in the instance of an accident, absorbing the force of impact and protecting the bodies inside the vehicle.

Alongside the Crumple sculptures Barry presents paintings on canvas which continue her exploration of automotive paints and painting techniques used on the Crumples’ surfaces. These paintings derive from memories of experiences in nature, using colour and form to evoke different environments that are ecologically unique and increasingly vulnerable. The visual language of the paintings spills into the sculptures, areas of which are hand-painted in a similar style.

“The surfaces that interest me provide opportunities for forms of looking that are persistent and patient, and therefore resilient,” Barry says. “At the same time, I strive to create surfaces that are enchanting and seductive, that offer the viewer an experience of the sublime. I see exuberance, enchantment and resilience as concepts that are unified through both the act of making work and the act of experiencing it as a viewer. Through creating complex and exuberant surfaces, I investigate the ways in which we – artists and viewers – can practice different kinds of resilience, self-care and space-holding for ourselves and others.”

The exhibition extends from the Covered Space at the NIROX Sculpture Park to the park grounds, and until 4 February will be supplemented by smaller-scale works and exploratory video pieces on show in and adjacent to the studio in which Barry has been working for the duration of the residency.


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