Intimate drawings and large-scale projections: Cuts in the Day explores queer desire, relationships and connection. For their first institutional exhibition, Camden Art Centre welcome Dani and Sheilah ReStack in this specially commissioned series of works.
Dani and Sheilah ReStack are both artists respectively as well as in collaboration. They often work at the intersection of video and sculpture – such as Dani ReStack’s Myths of the Academy (MOTA), a part-3D installation, part-film work exploring birth and pregnancy. Their artistic partnership reflects openly on their domestic lives, relationship and family. Although these themes are often explored in their practices, Cuts in the Day digs even deeper.
In Camden Art Centre, the show is split between two rooms. The first room is vast with a small video room at the back. The works here are intriguing – 2D surfaces built up with paint, newspapers, charcoal and cowhides. They are carnal but beautiful, each work revealing something new.
Inside the small room at the back, the video is captivating. Projected over one corner of the space, we see a person crouched, half submerged in water. The camera sits on the sand bed gently moving with the ebb and flow of the current. It witnesses life underwater, scuttling crabs, flailing legs, floating debris. When the film finishes, a white screen lights up the wall and the physical structure underneath is revealed – cardboard, sand, fabric and paint all recreating elements from the video in three dimensions. As the video loops around again, the elements satisfyingly line up with imagery in the video. The work here is bewitching, ensuring the viewer stays to watch the loop on rotation.
In the second, smaller space the artists present three large handmade sketchbooks. Flicking through uncovers handwritten notes, photos and line drawings – here, the artist’s ideas become works in their own right. Finally, the artist’s collaborative video trilogy, Feral Domestic, is presented. The video is an exploration of the artist’s relationships – joys and disappointments all embraced.
Cuts in the Day is compact and well formed, exhibiting experimental and innovative approaches to materials. An intriguing exhibition investigating thought-provoking concepts.
Cuts in the Day is showing at Camden Art Centre until 15 Jan 2023. Tickets are free and more information is available here.
Image by Luke Walker
Review by Amy Melling
Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.
Read Amy’s latest review Hallyu! The Korean Wave at the V&A – on now until 25 June 2023-Review – Abundant Art
