THE MARROW OF A SWOLLEN RIVER
10 October to 9 November 2024
The Marrow of a Swollen River
Soothed as I meander along the river's edge, stopping to hold a gentle lapping of movement against the banks. This body is a heavy mingling of memories and marrow. A tidal bore of light and shadow. Waiting for reflections underneath between the passing waves. Waves will always gather and pulse, pound and surround all within its path. Breathing in damp earth, pressing into the sediment. Returning the grit beneath fingernails. Walking until confluence, meeting its tributary. Here, the two rivers, once separate, now merge into a single and palpable force. Mapping as I amble along, no sense of pace, light breaking around the bend. Watching the eddy stretch into the opposite direction, swirling and wild. Reminded to move, to transmute energy. This is a fearless and tender flow both free and distinct. It is in the space between the hushes of moving water, where I seep into my own sediment and grit.
- Sam Gold, 2024
Artist Statement
A body is a map of memories – of desires and sensations that shape our understanding of self and our communities. This new work observes the inner and outer landscapes of queerness, tacit knowledge and interconnectedness as it converses with notions integral to the primacy of movement, transition, and poetics of the body. Underscoring the ways in which our bodies and identities are at once intertwined and perpetually in flux, this work speaks to the politics and complexities inherent to non-binary and queer identities.
A progression of form and technical rigour is driven by a fascination with the innate memory of living materials, as well as the dialogue that occurs between the maker and the matter. These works are a celebration of minerals and transformation as they seek to honour the connections between light and dark. By teasing out the power dynamics underpinning our relationships to ourselves and the world around us, each form is guided and informed by interwoven memories that highlight the wisdom inherent in our somatic linguistics.
Movement is an innately perceptual and cognitive way of sensing the world. By addressing the complexities and politics of a non-binary and queer identity, these forms seek to disrupt and reimagine dominant narratives that shape our understandings of self and other.
The cobalt chromatic palette is made within a technical framework that speaks to boundaries and limits. Characterised by a sense of material intensity, they illustrate the vital interplay between growth and control as they reach for the very edges of what is possible. The glazes enrichen their forms with a painterly, watercolour-like surface to imply a sense of fluidity and motion.
In an embodied sense, growth and transformation require sustained effort. This necessarily deepens the relationship between the maker and the material. Contemplating gesture, response, and the intimacy between them, these works excavate experiences of queerness and sensual politics. The result is not only an exploration of minerals, metaphor, fluidity and linguistics, it is an ongoing ode to my community, to queerness and to sensory evocation.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Mineralogist and curator Ben McHenry at the South Australian Museum and established potter Peter Andersson for their expertise that were essential to developing these new glazing methods. With deep gratitude to Loc Ziesing, Sal Naylor-Hampson, Dominic Guerrera for the assistance and unwavering laughs in the studio. This exhibition was supported by the Government of South Australia through Arts South Australia.
Enquiries to mail@hugomichellgallery.com