If all else fails

If all else fails presents a new body of work by Royal College of Art exchange fellow Jessica Wetherly, made during a three-month residency at The University of Texas at Austin.

This exhibition finds intelligence in the “other” in order to see the potential for different possible futures. During her Texas residency, Wetherly studied a desert environment in which she observed presence of life that can survive an apocalyptic world. Large-format prints of a non-identifiable landscape reveal objects that appear like flotsam, as though washed ashore. The objects have a sense of buoyancy; both materially and formally, they are haunted by the absence of water. The objects have a sense of bouyancy; both materially and formally, they are suspended in a shiny, eternal present haunted by the trace of human touch.

With the realization that time is ticking for humanity on Earth, this exhibition confronts present fears of a future world slowly becoming shrink-wrapped in plastic — a material whose seemingly futile existence will outlast our own. The current acceleration emphasizes the suffocation inflicted upon not only ourselves, but all living things.

Please join us for a reception on Thursday, November 29, 5–6 PM.

Bio

Jessica Wetherly is a London-based sculptor currently working toward her Masters in Sculpture at The Royal College of Art, London. Previously, she studied at The Art Academy London (2009-2013) and at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design in London (2008). Wetherly is a QEST scholar and has been an artist-in-residence at Westbury Art Centre in Milton Keynes, U.K. and at NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland.