Edel Assanti is pleased to present Jodie Carey’s monumental work Untitled (Slabs). Originally commissioned by and exhibited as part of her solo exhibition at the new art gallery Walsall in 2012, the sculptural installation consists of seven plaster slabs, intricately arranged within the gallery.

Predominantly site-specific, Carey’s works combine age-old sculptural practices with unconventional, ephemeral materials such as dust, blood, lace and plaster. Gradually paring away representational elements of her practice, the clean, abstract forms of Carey’s sculptures belie complex fabrication procedures: each of the slabs (mostly three metres in height) comprising the installation has been hand-cast by the artist, and meticulously coloured using pencil crayon, a medium chosen for its naivety and fragility.

Highlighting their own vulnerability, the backs of the slabs are purposely exposed to reveal wire and timber, used to strengthen the plaster, and the hand-made hessian sand bags weighting the sculptures down. These are monuments reduced to their essence, unspecific and anonymous, challenging the reverence that public commemorations and memorials traditionally command.

Jodie Carey studied Fine art at Goldsmiths College, completing an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2007. Carey’s work features in prominent uK collections, including the Saatchi collection, the David Roberts Art Foundation, as well as Swiss gallerists Hauser and Wirth. recent institutional solo exhibitions include Solomon’s Knot at the new art gallery Walsall (2012), Somewhere, Nowhere at Pump House Gallery, London (2011), and In The Eyes of Others at the Towner Contemporary Art Museum, Eastbourne (2009).

Image: © Jodie Carey, Edel Assanti