Matters of Adornment
6-22 March 2020
Solo exhibition
AIRspace Projects, Gadigal and Wangal land (Marrickville, NSW) 

Matters of Adornment is a body of work that functions as an intermediate between architecture and the body — an organic, playful and supple reinterpretation of the often angular ornamental designs found in the plaster and cast iron work of western classical buildings. Using both contemporary and outmoded materials common to these spaces; a combination of gypsum products, paper pulp, papier-mâché (or carton pierre) and steel; Emma Pinsent reimagines these ubiquitous motifs as tubular, sculptural reliefs.

In order to reconfigure the original designs, Pinsent builds the sculptures out of elongated appendages that loop and twist in and out of one another; giving the form a length and roundedness much like that of limbs. In turn, she actively seeks out a review of the original designs through a familiar, bodily sensibility and thus a point of tangible relativity, to which she believes is absent in the rigid, antiquated embellishments of Victorian-style architecture. By pushing the boundaries of ornamental materials, Matters of Adornment acts as a rumination on the value of matter and a re-thinking of the static and arguably fallible narratives tied to western classical styles of architecture.