‘Close to Home’, Fox’s final solo exhibition for 2020 opens at Michael Reid Gallery in Berlin, Germany on the 16th October. Featuring new small scale paintings and two new collaborative sculptural cabinets made with artists Wilfred Kalf, Todd Fuller and Remi Wortmeyer. This intimate and thoughtful collection of new works focus on reflections from the covid19 lockdowns and looking for inspiration closer to home.
‘Rising Tide is a cabinet of ash wood that houses Belinda’s seven-panel wrap around painting of undulating waves and a concertina artist book. The pair state: “This work is all about the surprise of the interior space. It is a true reflection of the crashing anxieties, the uneasiness abound and a deep desire to harness the chaos and find the strength required to endure”. The cabinets design echoes the grand triptychs of Dutch and Flemish painter’s, such as Maerten de Vos, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas van Leyden. In these designs, the triptychs panels were hinged creating new thresholds that expanded narratives. The panels also served a practical function, folding inward to close off and protect the painting. Similarly, the physical structure of Rising Tide cradles its painting – it can be opened and observed, or closed off and sheltered. Like Belinda’s earlier work Swell the painting in this piece creates movement. It captures what Belinda describes as a moment of “free-fall” – a moment to surrender to the unknown.
Resilience is a one-meter high rotating cabinet also made from ash wood. Fit with custom shelves, the piece holds a number of intimate works – small paintings and concertina artist books made by Belinda, and two video works, one made by Todd Fuller and the other by Remi Wörtmeyer. Collectively Resilience brings together four voices and, in many ways, is a ‘cabinet of curiosities’. A traditional ‘cabinet of curiosities’ or Wunderkammer housed objects and art collected from across the globe. Ironically the term ‘cabinet’ in this sense described an entire room and the Wunderkammer was a precursor to the museum. In this contemporary take, Resilience mimics the reality of 2020, a new confinement that looks out at a world that once was. Wilfred who designed the final structure for this work in response to Belinda, Todd and Remi’s pieces, describes it as a “residential tower” with apartments put behind bars, that are longing to open up again. Belinda envisioned that Resilience would offer audiences moments of discovery and reprieve, the video works lighting up in the evening to cast light, hope and offer a signal of unity. ‘ extract from Close to Home 2020, catalogue essay by Laura Thomson.
