Holly Hendry: Wrot
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle
18 February – 24 September 2017
My interpretation of Holly Hendry’s first solo show in a UK arts institution, was an exploration and celebration of material. Her generous and unabashed use of Jesmonite, marble and plastic in candy coloured pastel colours create a cartoon and otherworldly landscape within the white cube space of the gallery.
Although in interviews with her she discusses human issues of death and laughter, my primarily response to her work was very material focused rather than anything else. However, in fairness this may be down to my current obsession with new casting materials I am experimenting with in my own practice. I particularly enjoyed the box of samples left by the door for visitors to pick up, touch and explore. This is the BALTIC’s learning team acknowledging visitors visceral response to the work and their desire to touch and explore, a testimony to Hendry’s ability to create tactile and intriguing works.
The work filled the room and although imposing in the relatively small space, the layered structure felt inviting through the use of humour. Cartoon style bones were embedded in the strata of the pastel layers as if a slice had been transposed from an archeologically dig in an episode of ‘Pepper Pig’.
The work also had a human quality to it, from the oozing forms and pink colour that reminded me of flesh and skin to the plastic-like finish suggestive of the plastic models you might find in a biology classroom of the layers of skin.
The combination of visual references and similarities to human biology and geological references the connection between us and nature and the beautiful synergy between macro and micro which I can relate to within my own practice.
