28 Mar Devra Fox. In orbit
Source Credit: Content and images from Wall Street International Magazine by . Read the original article - https://www.meer.com/en/79816-devra-fox-in-orbit
To produce
something entirely new from the
materials of our own body may seem
like a Godly act, but it is all too human.
In her first solo exhibition with
Hashimoto Contemporary, In Orbit,
artist Devra Fox uses delicately rendered alien-like plantlife to express the strange normality of growing a
life inside oneself. The San Francisco-based artist’s new series of surreal graphite drawings explores how
bodies, like plants, grow and reorient themselves to hold and respond to each other, offering tender yet
unfamiliar imaginings of pregnancy.
Mirrored images and twins appear often in this body of work, stressing how the knowledge implanted in
us by biology tends towards reproduction. The pair of Nascent drawings depicts flowering bodies with
large openings and long, languide stems like fallopian tubes. Up grows firmly towards the imagined sky
on top of a slender female finger, while Down slumps towards the imagined ground, saved by the same
caring hand. This imperfect reflection underscores that when bodies are bound to each other—even
through invisible, gravitational relationships—they might grow together or wither for the other to live. Still,
the pairs that appear in In Orbit are largely symbiotic creatures whose existences are completely
intertwined within, as the artist puts it, “a new sphere of dependence and trust.” Even when separated,
they orbit each other, their trajectories tied to the movements of the other.
Highlighting the parallels between plant life and human bodies, the figures in these drawings move
through cycles of growth and decay, tethered by mycelium-like pathways of connection or holding each
other like vessels. Uteral plant creatures with long willowy limbs extend out of bulbous, swollen mounds,
rendered in graphite and red lead on white and cream paper. Being bloated, swollen, may evoke
discomfort, tightness, excess, but Fox’s distended figures seem relaxed, even at ease with the beings that
are pushing up out of their bodies or growing within—they adapt, adjust, reconfigure themselves to make
space for someone new.
Compelled by a desire for and expression of bodily containment, Devra Fox’s works embody the power
of nature and our powerlessness to sway it. She questions how our reactions to unpredictability seep
outside our bodies, creating physical and emotional attachment to environments and objects around us.
Through the meticulous and meditative practice of graphite drawing in a monochromatic palette (think
gray, red, blue), Fox’s artwork pulls on our imaginations to consider the physical manifestation of our
emotions, and how our self might be contained beyond our own bodies. Fox received her BA in Studio
Art from Bard College and MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University. Fox participated in residencies at
Pocoapoco, The Women’s Studio Workshop, The Vermont Studio Center and Kala Art Institute. Fox’s work
has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Source Credit: Content and images from Wall Street International Magazine by . Read the original article - https://www.meer.com/en/79816-devra-fox-in-orbit