Catalogue Physical Fiction

Rachel de Joode likes to play with surfaces. Photos of surfaces—skin, sweat, lumps of clay, minerals—have inspired the undulating inkjet prints and fleshy sculptures that on view in this exhibition. The works evidence a combination of digital and physical sensibilities, producing a slippery, confounding effect. Resembling cells or unknown organisms, De Joode's llively photographic works are perched atop wooden stools, like works-in-progress waiting to dry. From afar, the works appear to be sculptural, given dimension through the swirling, contrasting images they contain; but as one draws closer, the flat surfaces become apparent. The pale, beigey-pink “squish sculptures” seem to want to be held and hugged— and they have been, by the artist herself. De Joode has left the marks of her body on the sculpture’s surface. The human scale expanded foam sculptures bare the imprints of the artist’s body, she literally hugged the foam leaving an imprint of her body, creating a negative body.