They flower into deadly nightshade - Private View 17 November 6-9 pm
"They flower into deadly nightshade " presents a new body of work made in response to reading a text by Martin Shaw, Courting the Wild Twin, which examines what it means to reconnect with our wild self. Following the legend, Wetherly searches for The Wild Twin by responding to time spent in ancient woodlands at night. She seeks a rewilding of the imagination in the moonlight hours from dusk till dawn, where impressions, dreams and shadows revel in a collective consciousness.
The show includes a sculpture series Ghosts of The Midnight Hour which float on the walls as though the forms were cut and lifted from a moonlit path. They sit alongside a print series Constellations connected by threads of folklore and mythology. The works take root in the practice of attention; focusing on the perfume of the forest floor, the texture of bark and the whispers between the trees stretching between the cellular and celestial. As Martin Shaw describes, ‘This condition of wondering is still absolutely intact in us. It is.... This raw imaginative, holy thing.’
Wetherly explores mysticism, queer ecology and transcendence through witnessing and being, as a form of healing our connection to the wilderness – our natural habitat. In venturing through the dark hours Wetherly observes and invites us to draw a deep cosmic breath, to close your eyes and see and hear with your skin and to seek equilibrium in the earth. Through these personal reflections, Wetherly searches the shadows in a quest to reach the mythological as an agent for change.
Jessica Wetherly's multi-disciplinary practice uses sculpture to explore narrative. Following her participation in The Muse residency summer show in 2021, she was selected for a solo opportunity. Her practice reflects a fascination with science and symbolism. Recent solo exhibitions have included shows at Aspex Portsmouth (2022), Stone Space, London (2022); Arte Contemporary, La Rapita, Spain (2022); BilbaoArte Foundation, Spain (2021); Korai Project, Cyprus (2020); Blackbox, UCA Farnam (2020), and Fieldworks Gallery, University of Texas (2018). She was awarded The Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award 2020; The BilbaoArte Beca for International Artists.
2020; The Broomhill National Sculpture Prize 2019; and The Stanley Picker Scholarship 2017. Jessica graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2019.