In the second instalment of Roots of Day, we look at the nature and life cycle of painting languages and the fragments that get unearthed and integrated into contemporary life.
For the first iteration of this ongoing series, the gallery was filled with straw and each artist was asked to respond to the origins of storytelling and its place in a network culture. For Dying on the Vine however, we consider paintings as bodies left above ground and left to look at: what has remained over time, what has decomposed, which ideals in painting have cannibalized themselves and others which have become universal. Each work in the show reminiscent of a past period in painting, takes its vocabulary and reconstitutes it, challenging the idea of the death of a language.
Live turf has been laid on the floor of the gallery to present a clear boundary between what is above and what is below the ground. Throughout the show, the grass will slowly die and follow a lifecycle of a material taken out of its environment.
