Ismene King
Encounters in wreath-knot-chain formations

‘Play’ becomes a potent condition, within which Ismene King creates a series of works that explore thoughts around embodied relationality, kinship, vulnerability and self-encountering. Departing from existing structures of entanglement and binding, such as wreaths, knots and rigging equipment, Ismene creates hybrid ceramic clusters, oscillating between symbolic ornaments, ‘eel/snakes’ – figures often explored in her practice – and operational apparatuses.

The ‘eel/snake’ is a fictional crossbreed of animalistic features and sculptural markings. It becomes a sphere of exploration, both in regards to reflecting personal narratives and elements of femininity, as well as in regards to morphological research. Its various ways of movement, organic or modular, are re-articulated into a ‘code’ of interlocking elements. These become dynamic systems, simultaneously anchors and points of departure for expansive networks of relation, support and recurrence.

Throughout the exhibition, the creatures are transformed into a multitude of hybrid structural components, their bodies raveling or intertwining, creating spaces which playfully, yet urgently ‘hold’ one another, alluding to an almost erotic or auto-erotic curiosity and physicality.

Ismene King (b.1993) is a sculptress and ceramist, currently based in Athens. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2017). Her practice spreads across media, incorporating elements of sculpture, ceramics, drawing and performance, as part of her material exploration, while it sometimes involves a curatorial practice. In her ongoing research, she explores emotion and embodiment as a methodology for making, creating work which responds to experiencing her surroundings and processing emotions, elements of femininity, relationality, mourning and healing. Selected group exhibitions include ‘Sandbox House’, Aiolou 48-50, Athens (2020), ‘GENETIC ESTATE’, Chrysospiliotissis 3, Athens (2018), ‘(dis)placement’, Off Quay, London and Jacaranda, Rio de Janeiro (2017), ‘MEMEMEME’, The Crypt Gallery, London (2017), ‘XXL’, Hotel Elephant Gallery, London (2016), ‘Backwards+Forwards’, Casa Dona Laura, Lisbon (2016), and the Sanskriti Foundation (UNESCO Culture) artist residency exhibition, New Delhi (2015). Recent curatorial work involves the group exhibition ‘APOTROPAION’, at 16 Fokionos Negri exhibition space, as part of The Sotiris Felios Collection.