Draw out the figure that you will make

Draw out the figure that you will make

‘On the fifth day I laid out her exterior. It was a field in area, its walls

were each 10 times 12 cubits in height, the sides of its top were of

equal length, 10 times 12 cubits each. I laid out its interior structure

and drew a picture of it.’

 

EMBASSY presents Draw out the figure that you will make a new installation of

wall paintings and interactive sculptural works by Ella Walker and Flora Hunt,

resulting from a collaboration seeking closeness with the time-worn and the

fragmented. Angels, demons and goddesses flutter around that space in drawn

image and figurative form. Squishy embraces and intimate encounters between

bodies emerge from imagined historical narratives, archaeological finds and

ancient texts.

 

This new body of work is the product of a conversation between the artists

exploring folklore, fables and embellished tales of earthly and unearthly beings,

places visited and structures built. Both artists have an interest in reinterpreting

and restaging classical techniques of art making and building, mimicking

antiquated techniques in temporary formats.

 

Flora Hunt’s sculptures invite the viewer to get close, touch and cuddle the work

as well as alluding to a more ethereal sense of place and connection. Their

material quality and forms connect to an idea of closeness with something or

someone ancient and buried in time, inviting tactile intimacy with history, land

and possible ancestors. Texts act as prompts for these interactions, describing

experiences with objects or places that seem distant and otherworldly.

 

Ella Walker’s large scale mural cloaks the walls and ceiling of the gallery.

Otherworldly figures dance the perimeter of the space and fragments of

buildings are glimpsed. Pigment applied directly to the walls of the gallery

follows from traditional fresco techniques that become an integral part of a

space’s architecture. The resulting compositions are tightly framed, fluid spaces

that suggest a constant interplay between the realms of painting, figuration, and

drawing. Here, the decorative becomes monumental and ‘permanent’.

 

Invited storyteller Mara Menzies further reimagined the work, performing within the space an original tale inspired by the work along with two of her favourite stories.