exhibitionDillwyn SmithLight Cages24.10—22.11.201912th floor

VO Curations is proud to present the exhibition ‘Light Cages’ by artist Dillwyn Smith opening 24 October - 22 November, at its 12th Floor gallery. The artist will present his newest series of work, developed exclusively from stitches and stretches of mass-produced nylon fabrics, which he turns into geometric kaleidoscopes that make our ugly little world tumultuously bright. 

Smith’s pieces appear like literal ‘fabrications’ that bathe in raw materiality. Translucent and opaque fabrics interweave and give apertures to the layers beneath: beams, nails and fabric seams are laid bare probing the ‘canvas’ boundaries through deconstructivist techniques. Undeniably, the Brutalist aspect of VO’s space, formerly home to David Chipperfield Architects, and its exposed concrete columns, sharp angles, strip tube lighting fuses with the raw and unpretentious honesty of Smith’s works.

The subtle and delicate balance of textures and transparency is enhanced by stitching, and weaves hold edges of colour together, behaving like works of drawing, rendering the architectural pieces charmingly imperfect. Smith’s choice of colour palette resonates with a previous project held at the Mark Rothko Art Centre, Latvia. After exploring Dvinsk, Rothko’s city of birth, the artist became infatuated by the rhythms of colour, as well as his common surroundings, with reference to fretted windows and the city’s shades of shutters.

So what are these mere objects that Smith now creates? light sculptures? flags with no nation? quilts without beds? Smith’s work demands contemplation, but in a revivifying way, as quiet and necessary as a day-dream. The whole approaches the poetics of interlacement, a fabricated fluidity, disciplined but organic, beyond the hard geometric trickery of Cubism.