UNREQUINTED REMNANTS by Patricia Avres at Tank, Shanghai
4-5-3-1-16-9-12-12-1-19, Patricia Ayres, 94 x 91.4 x 165.1 cm
19-1-2-9-14-1, Patricia Ayres, 215.9 x 109.2 x 109.2 cm
1-14-19-7-1-18, Patricia Ayres, 111.8 x 38.1 x 30.5 cm
23-21-12-6-19-20-1-14, Patricia Ayres, 114.3 x 30.5 x 25.4 cm
Unrequited Remnants delves into the conventions and restrictions that define our contemporary society. The sculptural assemblages featured in the exhibition function as “matter out of place,” a concept Mary Douglas investigates in reference to dirt in her seminal work Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Enmeshed in gunk and residues, the forms’ orientations vary with unorthodox postures, some dangling while others seemingly protruding from the earth. These unfixed allusions echo the instability of categorization akin to Judith Butler’s analysis in Bodies That Matter. Butler argues that the abjection of certain bodies and identities is crucial to the formation of normative subjectivity. Abjection, in this context, refers to the process by which what is deemed undesirable, unclean, or unnatural is cast out of the realm of the recognizable human, thus reinforcing the boundaries of what is considered “normal” or acceptable. Ayres’ anomalous abominations articulate the inaudible convictions.
