When you enter “December”, Claudette Gacuti’s exhibition, you immediately come across what looks like the remains of an archaeological dig, carefully laid out on a sort of geological fold topped with a sumptuous black canvas. The objects look like gigantic sewing needles, arranged as if ready for use.
The works in this exhibition are made up of fragments of older sculptures, which have been reformulated into tools of repair that, by definition, unite distinct forms into an expressible whole. Their ruptures are however the conditions of existence of the works. See, for example, the crystal form ur Reinforced needle (sewing), 2022, comprising mounds of layered, unfired clay that have been stitched together. Parts of it have been tinted light blue, as if swaths of cloudy sky were one of the elements of the work. Indeed, while the object’s history is visible through its craftsmanship, Gacuti has created something entirely new, connected but not totally sutured to its past.
Elsewhere, the point of Sheathed needle (bent), 2022, has been blunted. One wonders if this is due to prodigious use, or even neglect – something that has been eroded by the ruthless passage of time? And the wear of needle in Two parts, 2022, explicitly highlights the damage; once again, the “breakage” of the work is its most powerful feature, both materially and conceptually. Arrival, 2023, a mural triptych, takes us off the ground and into the air. Vaporous fabrics hung from a wooden beam function as curtains over painterly views of clouds, as if looking up at the sky from a suite of airplane windows. The thin material of the curtain, with seams visible everywhere, mediates between different realms: the flat and the three-dimensional, the material and the immaterial. Gacuti’s sense of “repair” in this show is deeply metaphysical and brings together so many disparate parts into a compelling whole.
