Polly Apfelbaum: These Boots Are Made for Walkin’

Central to the exhibition are a series of fifteen wall-mounted ceramics that are part of a body of work Apfelbaum developed for her 2022 exhibition For the Love of Una Hale at Arcadia University, Pennsylvania (the state where the artist grew up). These often highly personal works are the result of a residency, which was extended by the Covid pandemic, at the University's ceramics studio. Apfelbaum has been working with ceramics for over a decade and the Arcadia residency provided both the freedom to experiment as well as an opportunity to develop her skills. Citing her history of working with materials associated with craft and everyday life, the artist explains:

Working with highly trained ceramicists, Apfelbaum developed a range of bespoke handmade glazes, exemplified by the first two works in the show which the artist describes as a ‘colour palette’. Each work is made from terracotta; a robust and tactile clay which is red when fired. The clay slab is covered in white slip which Apfelbaum then draws or inscribes with a pattern. The particular colour palette of these pieces, which read like abstract paintings, often derives from memories of early exposure to Pennsylvania German art; the surface patterns evoking the composite fabric patches of quilts.

There are other references too, PA Abstract Ringo (2022) alludes to the Beatles’ drummer in the film ‘Get Back’ which documents the band recording songs for 1970 album ‘Let it be’. The film captures the Beatles’ particular fashion sense and Ringo Starr’s loud shirt was the primary inspiration for this piece. Circles are a recurring motif in other works in the exhibition, inspired by dartboards, Chinese Chequers and the coins which were often used as a template for quilt patches.

Apfelbaum’s application of glaze is intuitive and spontaneous she uses the medium in a painterly way, colouring-in each small section of ceramic and rejoicing in the beautiful mistakes which are only apparent after final firing. The ceramics have become a means for the artist to reflect on the inception of her artistic sensibility and its investigation into the materiality of colour. The handmade metal supports which hold each work to the wall were specially made and suggest early American metalwork.

The floor and horizontality have always been extremely important in Polly Apfelbaum’s practice from early work until today and here it is dominated by a large woven floor installation consisting of four woollen pieces in a grayscale palette. Made in Oaxaca, Mexico by Zapotec artisans these are handwoven using traditional dyes, their scale often stretches the machines capability.

The images used in this piece are taken from the artist’s earlier The Potential of Women series (2017), with each rug depicting a flattened, semi-abstract female face with a black bob hairstyle and reference an illustration which the artist came across for a 1963 book and symposium. Apfelbaum was fascinated by the book’s provocative and ultimately patronising message which imagined a future in which women might be useful contributors to society but completely neglected the current issues and demands of 1960s feminism. Over fifty years later, she borrowed both its graphic subject and its title, which served as the starting point to shine a light on the historical and contemporary dimensions of equality.

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