‘Held between two acts’ captures two serendipitous moments, and wonders at the relationship between them as seemingly unconnected events. The postcard format is used to give the artwork transportability, allowing it to become a removable object, taken by anyone who may wish to do so.
Taking place in the ex-office spaces at Shaftesbury Avenue, The Floor is Lava presents a modular stage, inviting 40 artists to showcase sculptural works that disrupt and subvert the utilitarian architecture of the office environment.
The Floor is Lava is the third collaborative project of Rachel Mortlock, India Stanbra and Janek Nixon. Following Systems We Have (New Art Projects, 2022 – curated by Hsi-Nong Huang) and Testing Grounds (Filet, 2022), the series tests the boundaries of the exhibition space, exploring shifting encounters between the artwork and audience. Exhibiting as part of the Soho Connections: Artist Takeover at Shaftesbury Avenue, The Floor is Lava will take place alongside two weekends of artist-led events in March.
In the words of Timothy Morton, ‘everything emits time’; objects, infrastructures and spaces exist inherently at a human scale, inevitably cascading into redundancy. Positioning 200 discarded office lockers as a performative platform, The Floor is Lava confronts the strange banality of the workplace, challenging the greyness of transient corporate landscapes and creating instead a transformative playground for artworks. Repurposed and elevated, the platform extends the monotonous carpet tiles beneath, turning the floor into a stage that resists the language of function and efficiency.
Through these interventions, the exhibition creates a space for materiality, theatricality, and play.
Exhibiting artists: Ekaterina Luzgina Laura Porter Katie Surridge Kavitha Balasingham JD Rooney Olivia England Mike McShane Ali Glover Lily Bunney Leonie Cameron Abigail Norris Oona Wilkinson Zoë Granger Leo Bant Charlotte Dawson Jadene Imbusch Henry Burns Rachel Mortlock Gabriela Pelczarska Arlene Wandera Sam Sangjani Wills Janek Nixon India Stanbra Simon Prentice Matthew Swift Lydia Porter Hsi-Nong Huang Rory Beard Elena Hoskyns-Abrahall Celeste Mcevoy Chloe Beddow Isobel Atacus Gavin Bell Eleni Papazoglou Gideon Pain Charlie Pritchard Camilla Bliss Eleanor Bedlow Dan Young Tom Coates
Above words by Rachel Mortlock, India Stanbra and Janek Nixon.