The doorway through which we enter or exit an experience, is also a signpost, it prompts us to intention, attention and reflection. In this space preparation can take place, but also expectations can unfold and tint our perspective of what we undergo. This is a liminal zone. One can name it, delineate it, and attempt to contain it, yet traversing through it is charged with an affect that endures beyond its confines.
The title Antechamber alludes to the pause required to enter an experience with a full sense of presence, it instructs. To remain aware of the energies that dwell in subtle realms requires a commitment to acute sensitivity and mystery; a desire to unhinge realities from linear time and space; to reveal the immanence of materials in all their dimensions.
Alicia Reyes Mcnamara, Kedisha Coakley, Leo Robinson and Richard Porter’s art practices convene in the exploration and potentiality of the liminal zone. At moments dream-like, surreal and humorous, or mystical, personal and playful; the works in Antechamber insist on pointing the viewer towards that which lies beyond what can be immediately perceived. Here, daily rituals and their instruments are sacred, ghostly presences made themselves known, acts of labour become enshrined, and mysterious games suggest occult systems of knowledge. Images and materials reclaim their ritual aspect.
Coakley’s work presents us with a series of power objects whose materiality and configuration allude to the tending rituals of afro-caribbean hair. Abstract graphic imagery with motifs and patterns of braids, unfolds a space that articulates self-care within a sacred dimension.
The series of shrines by Richard Porter possesses a totemic quality. Primary colours, letters and raw materials assembled with a nod towards modernist aesthetics riff on the aura of the art object and reclaim the sanctity of a playful approach towards composition.
Reyes McNamara’s paintings are rooted in an exploration of folklore and the wake practice of keening, the stewarding of the soul as it leaves the body. The prominence of hands and bodies that stretch and envelop other bodies suggest an extrasensory embrace, the ongoing presence and energetic imprint of selves beyond the self. Mask-like faces and elastic bodies present the viewer with both a multiplicity and an emptiness.
Robinson’s work maps transcendental systems of symbols and knowledge that suggest a set of instructions to be discovered: Games of chance or oracular assemblages, the domain of dreams and intersecting realities.
In the reclamation, elevation, unveiling and outlining of various forms of consciousness, presence and experience, this exhibition prompts us to see beyond what is immediately in front of us with a sense of wonder and anticipation.
Daniella Valz Gen
Kedisha Coakley (b.1982, London, England) is a Sheffield-based artist. She studied her BA and MFA in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University was awarded Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) Yorkshire Graduate Awardee 2020 and selected for New Contemporaries 2021.Recent shows include her solo exhibition Self-titled, YSP (2021)
Richard Porter (b. 1988) is a British artist working with sculpture, painting, installation and performance. His debut solo show, Night Glyph, took place at Amanda Wilkinson Gallery in Spring 2021, and his work featured in the recent group show I Know Where I’m Going Who Can I Be Now at The Modern Institute. Porter is the founder and editor of Pilot Press, a small press dedicated to the work of queer artists.
Alicia Reyes McNamara completed her MFA at University of Oxford Ruskin School of Art in 2016. Her work has been included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2016). She was awarded the South London Gallery Graduate Residency 2016-17 and her exhibition ‘Nowhere Else’ was exhibited in the first floor galleries in 2017. She was commissioned to create a project as part of 2018 Communal Knowledge at The Showroom. She was awarded an a-n bursary, a Jerwood Bursary, and the Chisenhale Studio Summer Residency and she also a solo exhibition at Niru Ratnam Gallery and Lismore Castle this summer. She is looking forward to being part of The London Open next year at Whitechapel Gallery.
Leo Robinson (b. 1994) lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. His current practice manifests as an ever-growing web of symbols and archetypes through maps, diagrams, games, allegorical paintings and ritual objects. His first solo exhibition 'Theories for Cosmic Joy' was shown at Tiwani Contemporary in 2019.
