Sculpture and Performance by Sally Underwood

Dependent Rational Animals

a collaboration with British painter and writer, Roxy Walsh

The work feels almost devotional, the artists seem to be seeking an interiority and intimacy over the demands and velocity of modern living. It recalls Gaston Bachelard’s famous quote that the home is an environment where one can ‘dream in peace’. Walsh and Underwood’s collaboration can be seen by extension as forming around mutual aspirations, a conversation without fear of reproach. Moreover, ‘Dependent Rational Animals’ is about formalising anecdotes and searching for allies – the exhibition has the feeling of the best type of conversations.

– George Vasey Art Monthly

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EGG

This egg on a tripod is a life-size replica of those created by the largest bird species that ever existed - the Elephant Bird of Madagascar.

SHELTER

As we worked together, the shelters for viewing and containing Roxy's paintings became increasingly spare. This one was more of a suggestion of a tree than a tree.

WALL PAINTING

Roxy included some studio-made paintings in the show, but also painted the walls to provide an inside/outside space for the work.

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EGG

This egg on a tripod is a life-size replica of those created by the largest bird species that ever existed - the Elephant Bird of Madagascar.

SHELTER

As we worked together, the shelters for viewing and containing Roxy's paintings became increasingly spare. This one was more of a suggestion of a tree than a tree.

WALL PAINTING

Roxy included some studio-made paintings in the show, but also painted the walls to provide an inside/outside space for the work.

More about Dependent Rational Animals

Sculpture as a Home

I am the object-maker and Roxy is the painter. In the first days of what turned out to be a rich and deep friendship, we talked about what sculpture and painting might do for one another.

Does one fit inside the other, or do they stand side by side even if one literally contains the other? What is the effect of such proximity, have on each of them? Would they be able to maintain their independence?

We thought about hermetic spaces, about shelters (both actual and imagined), and about one work might re-articulate another, and about how sociability between works might allow for a more nuanced articulation of ideas.

The only way to answer these questions was to make exhibitions together, and that was the beginning of Dependent Rational Animals.

By means of these beginnings, these slight differences, and the appeal . . . of my carefully subdued, reserved manner, I shall attract to myself one intimate friend, whom I shall influence deeply.

Bishop, Elizabeth. ‘In Prison’. Collected Prose. Chatto & Windus, 1994: p.190.

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UNFOLDING IGLOO

It's a nine-sided dome - igloo was a working title that stuck. Unfolding it was like transforming 3-dimensions into two, like the strange familiarity of the 2-D map that stands in for the Earth.

INSULATION

This structure, built from layers of cotton, home insulation and wool carpet underlay occupied space physically and aurally, through absorbing sound waves.

'THE LECTURER'

A sewn sphere - a 2-D canvas formed into a 3-D sphere - was layered with plaster, copper and pigments to make a seductive but untouchable surface.

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TOWER (WISH TOWER)

On the sea front, near the gallery, there was a Martello Tower, called The Wish Tower. We constructed a new version inside, as a timber frame covered in book-binding leather.

WALL PAINTING

Roxy marked the walls with shadow lines and horizons. Tiny brush strokes and fragile water colours offset the robust, earthy objects that stood before them.

SPHERE

A spherical canvas, layered with traditional sculptor's materials - plaster, copper and earth pigments gave a seductive but untouchable surface (for some, the temptation was too much and repairs of dents and greasy fingerprints were necessary.)

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UNFOLDING IGLOO

It's a nine-sided dome - igloo was a working title that stuck. Unfolding it was like transforming 3-dimensions into two, like the strange familiarity of the 2-D map that stands in for the Earth.

INSULATION

This structure, built from layers of cotton, home insulation and wool carpet underlay occupied space physically and aurally, through absorbing sound waves.

'THE LECTURER'

Standing on its two legged support, and open to all that surrounded it, this painting was the viewed and viewer at the same time.

Image

TOWER (WISH TOWER)

On the sea front, near the gallery, there was a Martello Tower, called The Wish Tower. We constructed a new version inside, as a timber frame covered in book-binding leather.

WALL PAINTING

Roxy marked the walls with shadow lines and horizons. Tiny brush strokes and fragile water colours offset the robust, earthy objects that stood before them.

SPHERE

A spherical canvas, layered with traditional sculptor's materials - plaster, copper and earth pigments gave a seductive but untouchable surface (for some, the temptation was too much and repairs of dents and greasy fingerprints were necessary.)

Solo Work

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MoMA

My art career started when I was 25. I went to MoMA in New York while I was on a business trip and saw that this was what I wanted to do.

I came home to London and set it in motion. Five years later, I went to Chelsea College of Art and Design to study sculpture.

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Movement

I loved to make sculptures that did something. It was never anything useful, and whatever they did almost always led to their demise.

In some cases, it happened fast, with a fall and a smash. In others, the movement was subtle, yet relentless.

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Performance

Much as I enjoyed static art works in galleries, my own practice didn’t find it so easy to stay still or last the duration of an exhibition.

Live art was a natural development of my interest in sequence, time and living processes.

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Madagascar

In 2008, I left London for Madagascar, to work with an NGO, and imaging spending the rest of life there. I stayed much longer than I intended, but in the end, I had to come back – although a part of me never left that wondrous country.

But after more than two decades, London wasn’t for me anymore.

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Berlin

I moved to Berlin and lived and worked in a beautiful studio on the Spree River for five years. Then my practice came to an abrupt end.

It was very uncomfortable. But I knew my artist-brain was always years ahead of my conscious mind, so I had to believe it would make sense one day. It took until 2022 to do so.

FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

(that's me on the right and Roxy on the left)

I DON'T KNOW. BUT IT'S ON ITS WAY AND NEARLY HERE.
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Work for Sale

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Sally Underwood Biesenthal 16359 Germany
Berlin 10407, Germany