South likes: Accordion at Laura Bartlett Gallery, London

South likes: Accordion at Laura Bartlett Gallery, London
Accordion 
Laura Bartlett Gallery, London, UK 
8 June – 27 July, 2014

Text by Marina Maniadaki

Accordion transforms Laura Bartlett Gallery into a space where inner images and memories of spaces, to which the artists have connected over the years, become a clear, tangible archive. Fragments of familiar domestic—yet not necessarily habitable—environments come together suggesting an investigation of the different surroundings defining each of us.
Imposing sampler rugs, each one accompanied by a human hair wig, can be seen as imprints of past mindsets and selves. Palette silk prints set forth deliberations on the aesthetic value of the artistic process itself, while peculiar keyhole-shaped woolworks offer us a glimpse of futuristic imagery. There is certainly a strong element of craftsmanship, merging with the notion of experiential evidence. The softness and fluency of the fabric as a medium creates a space of reflection on the progressive unfolding of time, especially if we consider the repetitive movements of wool tufting or sewing as an abstract impression of time passing by.
In the end, Caroline Achaintre’s hand-tufted wool, Wanderer, holds a sense of primitivism, which might hint the concealed connection between the works presented in Accordion; the timeless need to revisit past moments in time, only to endlessly isolate and put them back together.

http://www.laurabartlettgallery.com/exhibition/group-show/