Surface Functions

Drawing on references to her own experiences with anxiety, Alexandra Searle manipulates and exploits the behaviour of materials in order to physically depict moments of stress, tension and expectation. Her works expose familiar fragilities and aim to dig into the soft tissue of the materials she uses.

In this new body of work, Searle aims to illustrate a lack of control. Being oblivious to our visceral operations leaves us guessing how best to function on the surface to appease the foreign and unpredictable vessel we exist within.

Overflowing from their frames in bulges of protest, many of Searle’s forms are dictated by pressure and gravity, rather than the artist’s autonomy during the creation process. Glass recollects its former liquidity, having folded under its own weight, and tubular forms erupt in tangles. There is an overabundance within each piece, teetering on the edge of bursting or collapsing, or in other cases sagging – inert and spent – toward the bottom of the frame. Pressures and anxieties are physically represented in the strain or defeat of the materials themselves.

Gaining inspiration from the positive and negative spaces in the mould making and casting process, Searle plays with juxtaposing outsides and insides, hollows and solids. Combining materials both fragile and unyielding, Searle aims to physically depict the weight, in every sense of the word, of the corporeal existence.