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Jodie Carey: Guard

Archive exhibition
30 May - 23 August 2024
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Opening reception | Thursday 30 May, 6-8pm

Exhibition talk | Friday 31 May, 12-1pm

 

We infill plants with meaning for many reasons; they remind us of people we've loved or times in our lives. Guard seeks to remind us of the stubbornness of life, the human ability to evolve and adapt and ultimately our desire to survive.

- Jodie Carey

 

Edel Assanti is pleased to present Guard, Jodie Carey's fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. A site-specific installation of 150 jesmonite sculptures mounted on steel supports stretches across the entirety of the two ground floor galleries, articulating a serpentine path through the space.

 

Carey produced her latest installation employing a technique called earth-casting: wrapping plants with cloth and thread, the artist created slender, delicate sculptures that are then pressed into the earth's surface to form a rudimentary mould. The wrapped plants are then removed, and jesmonite is poured into the remaining imprint in the soil. Pale in colour, the resulting sculptures reveal traces of fabric, leaves, stones, and roots with a hauntingly exquisite level of detail.

 

Exploring notions of ritual and mortality, the tall, elegant uprights evoke the timelessness of standing stone monuments or an army of sentinels, silently registering the passage of time. The subtle tonalities that result from Carey's distinctive process emphasise the sculptures' faceted surfaces, revealing their elemental form whilst embodying a sense of impermanence.

 

Carey's recent work has explored culturally universal art-making methods including carving, weaving, and wall-drawing. Through revisiting age-old techniques, Carey's oeuvre emphasises the relationship between object making and commemoration, looking to the physical world as a repository of material memory. Diverting from the history of monumental sculpture, Carey's work belongs to a female British sculptural tradition that emphasises object-experience and materiality over image-making. Choosing to work with fragile and ephemeral materials, her installations challenge the permanence and solidity traditionally associated with the medium.

 

Flowers have been a recurring motif throughout Carey's practice. Earlier works comprised elaborate flower arrangements and bouquets unexpectedly fabricated out of newspapers that have been soaked or dusted with blood, bone or ash. "Flowers are strongly linked to cultural identity and so quickly become synonymous with conflict and atrocity around the world", Carey notes. "Most recently the sunflower for Ukraine became an instantly recognisable symbol of support. But flowers have always grown amongst the devastation of war. Poppies, carnations, forget-me-knots are all historically bound to conflict and remembrance. We think of these flowers beyond their seasons."

 

Referring to soil as the skin of the earth, Carey's interest in soil as a material is born out of its essential relationship to life and simultaneous ability to embody death. Its complex constitution combines minerals, water, air and the decaying matter of once-living things. In this way, Guard continues Carey's engagement with concepts of entropy and time, emphasising the universal human urge to commemorate our lives by making an impression on our surroundings.

 

As part of London Gallery Weekend, Jodie Carey will be in conversation at Edel Assanti with Joseph Constable, Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion, on Friday 31 May, 12-1pm.

 

About Jodie Carey
Jodie Carey (b. 1981) studied at Goldsmiths College, completing an MA in Sculpture at The Royal College of Art in 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include Beyond the Matrix, 100 Bishopsgate, London, UK (2024); Common Thread, New Art Centre, Salisbury, UK (2020); Sea, The Foundling Museum, London, UK (2018); Stand, St Cyprian's Clarence Gate, London, UK (2018); Dark Night by Daylight, Hå Gamle Prestegård, Nærbø, Norway (2014); Shroud, The Veterinary Anatomical Theatre, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany (2013); Solomon's Knot, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, UK (2012) and Somewhere, Nowhere, Pump House Gallery, London, UK (2011). Group exhibitions include Earthen, The Artist's Garden, London, UK (2024); Mother Art Prize, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2023); Sweep - Landskip, Kinokino, Sandnes, Norway (2018); The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2015); Women to Watch 2015, UK Friends of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, London, UK (2015) and Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing, Freud Museum, London, UK (2014). Jodie Carey lives and works in Battle, East Sussex, UK.

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Events
  • Jodie Carey in conversation with Joseph Constable

    Jodie Carey in conversation with Joseph Constable

    31 May 2024
    Friday 31 May at 12pm | Join us for a conversation between the gallery artist Jodie Carey and Joseph Constable, Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea. The conversation will centre on Carey's new solo exhibition Guard at Edel Assanti. About Jodie Carey Jodie Carey's practice explores the universal human urge to make an impression on our surroundings. Through site-responsive sculptural installations, Carey's practice adopts culturally universal, age-old artistic methods of creation, often evoking ritualistic or primitive traditions. Through revisiting these techniques, her oeuvre emphasises the...
    Read more
News
  • Jodie Carey in The Evening Standard

    Jodie Carey in The Evening Standard

    'The best exhibitions this week in London, from Shanti Panchal to Jodie Carey (May 30 to June 6)' by Elizabeth Gregory 31 May 2024
    31 May 2024 We pick the best art shows to enjoy this week. With access to hundreds of museums and galleries a tube ride away,...
    Read more
  • Jodie Carey in The Art Newspaper

    Jodie Carey in The Art Newspaper

    'London Gallery Weekend 2024: our critics pick their top shows' by Ben Luke and Louisa Buck 29 May 2024
    29 May 2024 As 130 galleries take part in this year's fourth edition of the event, Ben Luke and Louisa Buck roundup some of their...
    Read more
  • Jodie Carey in the Financial Times

    Jodie Carey in the Financial Times

    'London Gallery Weekend flies the flag for art in the capital' by Melanie Gerlis 28 May 2024
    28 May 2024 With 128 events and collaborations between rivals, the showcase promises to bring the city together. Mayfair’s Cork Street is bedecked with banners...
    Read more
Media
In this video, Jodie Carey discusses the research and production behind her forthcoming show 'Guard', opening on Thursday 30 May at Edel Assanti. Video: Dor Even Chen

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