Isabel Cavenecia’s black and white drawings stand out for their delicacy, with their outlines appearing wavy and flowy like gentle water streams. By filling the paper with pastel and graphite powder and working with the shapes that reveal themselves to her in the graphite dust, Cavenecia uses her intuition as a creative source. The relinquish- ment of rational control during the drawing process allows the outcome to be dreamlike or fantastique, merging the supernatural, the magical, and the fairytale-like. Set in fictional universes or nonearthly realities, women and anthro- pomorphic beings populate the picture planes. Though the imagery lingers in mysteriousness, it conveys strong sentiments and sensuality. Getting to know you (2021) almost awakes opposite feelings in the viewer. It shows a bright, ethereal landscape full of joy and rhythm expressed through the drawing’s composition and colorfulness. Cavenecia’s intimate works evolve around the metaphysical. The artitst conceives her intuition as a catalyst to “tap in to source – the spirit of it all, the wave that ripples around us”.
The sculptures by Sally von Rosen are made to be performed with; animated through the movement of the human body. Von Rosen is more interested in how objects can exert force upon humans and their social interactions than focussing on the human experience per se—inspired by Jane Bennet’s Vibrant Matter. A Political Ecology of Things (2010), for her, there is no real distinction between subjects and objects. Rather there is web of materials - an animated matter that competes, forms alliances that initiates new processes. In this exhibition, the performa- tive sculptures come to a standstill, allowing the viewer to take a closer look at their composition. The artist falls back upon natural forms for the sculpture’s shapes, which she then transforms into consumerist products. Melons were used to sclupt the basic form for Chrema I, II, III (2020). The works become oversized accessories or a pretty weapons that are fitted with reptile attributes, chains, and gems. Though the colors used are soft and powdery, the sculptures come with horns, thorns, and fangs, making them as desirable and dangerous as once. For von Rosen, her work is about a narrative that “engages in search for evolvement, transformation, and reformation of the inani- mate, the animate, and the in-between of things”.
In their duo exhibition, Isabel Cavenecia’s drawings and Sally von Rosen’s sculptures are embedded in the narra- tion of the science fiction Romance Ring Around the Moon by Constance Ash.
“The waters shook out spumescent halos, reflections of the ring of light restraining the moon. The river circled the castle in a deep abyss before flowing down the village. The castle used the river with noble purpose and made of it a weapon. The village made of the river stinking fish ponds of still water and green slime.
We might have been ascending to heaven. The scents of roses and lilies, anemones and violets gave notice we approached our destination. Honeysuckles at the drawbridge dropped over the moat, tumbled down the greasy grey stones to be lost in the currents of the river.”
From Ring Around the Moon by Constance Ash, 1986
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