David, Enrico
In response to an invitation for a solo exhibition at Cabinet Gallery, Enrico David chose to showcase his ability with glass painting, embroidery and cabinet making, bringing together four discrete artworks to create a strange and unsettling scene. Central to Madrepelage is a nine-foot hand-stitched rag doll, which appears to stand in for the artist. As David explains, ‘my work up to this point had been almost exclusively tied to a specific technique, which I had been exploring for about four years, namely embroidered canvas works.’ Slumped against the cabinet, the sedentary doll gazes at a lamp on which a desirably sleek-looking male figure casually leans. The mysterious collection and configuration of objects aims ‘to create a kind of semi theatrical relationship between the pieces, a kind of formal drama whose resolution remains an open possibility… The door at once proposes this’. Depending on the setting, it may function as an actual door to the outside world, or be hung on a wall, frustrating its purpose and intensifying the claustrophobic atmosphere of David’s drama.
Emma Mahony, British Art Show 6, 2006
- Artwork Details: variable Lamp - Part Lamp, 72 x 25 x 15cm Doll - Part Doll, 260 x 70 x 35cm Cabinet - Part Cabinet, 102.5 x 180 x 75cm Door - Part Door (x 2 crates), 226 x 76 x 0.5cm
- Edition:
- Material description: Mixed Media
- Credit line: © the artist
- Theme:
- Medium: Installation
- Accession number: ACC21/2005