Modern Relics
FOLD, London
9th February - 12th March 2022
Install shot;
Left Emma Papworth 'Ideal Unit II', centre James Lomax 'It all Unravels (STILL/LIFE', Right Amba Sayal-Bennett 'BARB'
'Department of Modern Planning', concrete
Ideal Unit II, Concrete, resin
Monument Relic III - Concrete, masonry paint
2020 AD, concrete
Left, Tim Ellis 'Spinning Plates', Right Emma Papworth 'Monument Relic'
FOLD is pleased to present Modern Relics a group show of artists working predominantly in sculpture. The work serves as imaginary artefacts, scavenged and excavated from contemporary culture and urban environments. Elements of classical architecture, modern cityscape, geometry and archaeological finds have been reformulated in order to question preconceived ideas relating to architecture, material, and the art historic canon.
The work on show references the use of modular form, traced back to industrial production and the repetitious procedures of Modernism. This idea is touched upon in Rosalind Kraus’ essay Part Object Part Sculpture when she discusses the holistic nature of modern sculpture as being born out of classical archaeology, ‘the unearthing of sculptural fragments of previous whole bodies’.
Concrete and artificial building materials have become symbolic of urban life. The materials used present their unyielding surfaces denying their material essence or age which in some ways neglect the dimension of time. It is interesting to consider these in relation to ancient artefacts, made from stone and natural materials that express their age as well as the story of their origins and history of human use.
The exhibition demonstrates multiple directions of sculpture, it imagines the modern artefacts of our times, scavenged and excavated from contemporary culture and urban environments – a reformulation of the discarded remains of our modern culture.