Julia Crabtree & William Evans
Exhibition Visit
Julia Crabtree & William Evans: Slip
17 September 2021 – 16 January 2022
Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
I was very excited to see this show because of the ‘breadth of materials and modes of making’ (Henry Moore Institute, 2021; 1). It came across as playful and an ode to the materials themselves. The artists talked of ‘the gesture and physical materials and placements of objects [as] another way for us to try and explain things to each other’ (Henry Moore Institute, 2021; 2). It felt like one of those shows you’d be sorry to miss because there would be a lot to be gained from seeing it in the flesh. Which is an underpinning concept for the artists, ‘the need to touch and understand the world through its things, when most information arrives via screens.’ (Henry Moore Institute, 2021; 1)
And I was not disappointed. What I loved most was how alive the installations felt. But they were very quietly active, perhaps even mischievous. Viewing the show felt like looking at a paused moment of activity. It felt as though if you turned your back or when you weren’t looking, the works might carry on morphing, shifting, or wriggling their way about the space. In the interview which accompanied the exhibition, Crabtree & Evans said that ‘states of matter are proving especially important: liquid to solid, transformation’ (Henry Moore Institute, 2021; 4) and this was very apparent.
(Above & Top Right) Julia Crabtree & William Evans, Gullet 2016 - 2021.
Carpet, uranium glass, jesmonite, sausage casting, rebar, wool, cotton twill, dye, buttermilk, pond life, porcelain, memory foam, glass (dimensions not given) Installation view (my own photos)
(Bottom Right) My sketches and notes on the works from the exhibition
The works I loved the most were the three steel rebars that looked as though they were making their way across the first gallery space with a loping walk. These pieces are of direct influence on my work, especially as I try to give my own steel structures the ability to stand. They were covered in dyed wool and cotton twill like a strange skin, it gave them a cartoon like appeal. Their raw ‘feet’ exposed at the ends looked harsh. They are doing something very different to my own works and feel strongly related to sculpture in comparison to my own in relation to drawing.
Other favourites included the morphing glass forms that made up the installations of Gullet, Swell and Heaves. These curious forms sat or slouched, inflated, and lengthened without actually moving at all, caught in a tension of being once a liquid but now a solid, their capacity to still be changing states lingers. The beautiful seductive nature of glass, and the way they sat on the floor, especially those that looked inflated had an interesting relationship of weight and weightlessness. The use of glass was particularly exciting in relation to be able to speak of air capacity, being inflated or in the process of deflating – a state I haven’t yet captured in my work.
(Above) Julia Crabtree & William Evans, Gullet 2016 - 2021. Installation view (my own photos)
(Left) Julia Crabtree & William Evans, Heaves, 2021. Glass, water (dimensions not given) Installation view (my own photos)
(Below) My sketches and notes on the works from the exhibition
My least favourite work was Pores, 2021, made of slip cast earthenware. They were scattered across the gallery floor, some stacked. They reminded me of a cross between seats and tongues in muted colours. I liked those coloured pink because its pleasing, squishy, and looks edible in an appetising way. I think this makes me consider that the things I get interested in when referencing the body are those deep-seated feelings that are harder to explain or words don’t attach easily to – they are those explanations where you end up giving a gesture, fascial expression, or some sort of noise – you feel it in/through your body, not through your mind. My issue with these works was how low down they were. In this vast gallery space there was no activation of the space above, but maybe as seat-like things this was important? They were also harsher, deformed, or defunct looking, nowhere near as pleasing or as smooth as other shapes and forms throughout the show.
Julia Crabtree & William Evans: Pores, 2021. Slip cast earthenware, glaze (dimensions not given). Installation view (my own photos)
The furthest gallery space contained a film, Crutch, 2017-21, which was a multichannel video installation projecting a soft pink material landscape that popped and sucked with bodily noises while holes or deepening cracks appeared on the surface of the landscape. My partner who had accompanied me to the show called it ‘the birth of belly buttons’ and he wasn’t wrong, I too noted that body part. The video felt like a middle, as in midriff, soft and pink like a tummy. To add to this sense of middle, the projection was also positioned in the middle of the wall which spanned the room. The shapes on the screen faded and deepened, definitions of shapes coming and going. It was unclear as to what any of it was, your only knowledge of it being a material surface – physical, sensible, matter, stuff. It was accompanied by sound, bodily noises, sometimes like a heartbeat, breathing, pumping, or sucking, maybe even wet. The speed varied, and I found it to be quite stressful, a bit sickly. Within the room were also these large pink squishy chairs/cushions-come-artworks. Sitting on top of them while watching this film made me aware of the body of this cushion, plus my own body on top, so it added this extra layer of bodily reference. This work had you caught between questions of what it is materially, and the potentials of its associations.
What struck me about seeing these works in person and being able to encounter them interacting in the space was how much more ominous and threatening they appeared to be, which I wasn’t expecting. I think I thought they would feel more playful, however, there was more a sense of menace about it, especially in Gallery 1 where the works involved jesmonite sausage casts. These were like ominous worms that were on a silent hunt for the other works in the space, slowly catching up with them, to restrain or pin them in place. Some works were even skewered or penetrated by these things, but you didn’t notice it at first. It was like a quiet assault, and it was a little unsettling. I think this would be the opposite of what I would hope my own installations to feel like. More playful, less assault.
''The body is ever present in your work, alluded to but never represented: the titles, the forms, even the making processes and their inherent vulnerabilities. The installation of the exhibition at times feels like the body too.
We’re interested in thinking through notions of inside and outside in relation to the spaces we inhabit, in the world and our own bodies. Topologically, in many ways the body is a torus – the gut is a hole that passes through it from the mouth to the anus: its surface is a continuation of our skin and therefore a surface in contact with the external world. Thinking through these fluctuations between inside and outside exposes how constructed binaries might blur and dissolve. We’re interested in how to shift perspectives to reflect on a larger entanglement of bodies, of being and matter and how we affect and connect with each other.''
(Left) installation view of Julia Crabtree & William Evans, Gullet 2016 - 2021 (my own video footage)
(Right) snapshot of Julia Crabtree & William Evans projection, Crutch, 2017 - 2021 (my own video footage)
Julia Crabtree & William Evans: Slip (2021) (exhibition) Henry Moor Institute, Leeds, 17 September 2021 – 16 January 2022
Henry Moore Institute, (2021) Julia Crabtree and William Evans: Slip (online) Available at: https://www.henry-moore.org/whats-on/2021/09/17/julia-crabtree-and-william-evans (Accessed 14/01/2021)
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Henry Moore Institute, (2021) Julia Crabtree and William Evans in conversation with Laurence Sillars (online) Available at: https://www.henry-moore.org/visit/henry-moore-institute/your-visit/julia-crabtree-and-william-evans-slip-exhibition-guide (Accessed 14/01/2021)
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Something Curated, (2021) Interview: Julia Crabtree and William Evans’ Curious Sculptures Reflect The Precarity of Our Times (online) Available at: https://somethingcurated.com/2021/10/27/interview-julia-crabtree-william-evans-curious-sculptures-reflect-the-precarity-of-our-times/ (Accessed 21/01/2022)
Cell Project Space (2017) Julia Crabtree & William Evans: Gullet (online) Available at: https://www.cellprojects.org/artists/julia-crabtree-william-evans (Accessed 14/01/2022)
Crabtree, J. & Evans, W. (2022) Julia Crabtree & William Evans (online) Available at: https://crabtreeandevans.co.uk(Accessed 08/12/2021)
South London Gallery, (2014) Julia Crabtree & William Evans (online) Available at: https://www.southlondongallery.org/exhibitions/julia-crabtree-and-william-evans/ (Accessed 08/12/2021)