Anya Swan and Caity Reynolds, “One Firm Bed”
8 – 31 January 2016
Anya Swan and Caity Reynolds cannot drive. For at least one of them this is a source of tremendous shame. They also have strong ropey arms with which they use to make art. One Firm Bed is an exhibition of some of the art forged by the sinewy muscles in their long long long arms. Their arms try and capture nebulous, floaty, silly things that escape us, all of us; giving permanence to little parts of the world that would otherwise surely dissolve into obscurity. These floaty things, these amorphous, murky, messy parts of life are sometimes a little bit funny or a little bit sad and sometimes they are downright scary. Swan and Reynolds like to embrace them, all the bits, they like to grab on to them and twist them in their vice like grips, and manipulate them with their equally strong fingers, they pull them apart and put them back together in ways they aren’t supposed to go and they would like for everyone see. In an action that seems to imply ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’ they use their powerful arms to pull back the dirty covers on their stained mattresses. They point and say “Look, I drew a face on it.”
This exhibition is comprised of a motley collection of pictures painted and scratched and drawn, sculptures that share aesthetic and structural similarities with mashed potato and chunky, clumsy words. One Firm Bed might be a bed of insecurity, but it’s a warm bed, and it’s a familiar bed and even if it’s a little bit uncomfortable, and feels a little bit unsafe, it is still a big bed that we’ve all been tucked into.
Opening night wine is provided by Coriole Vineyards.
