2015 Catalogue Archive

With works that bend and stretch objects she encounters every day, London-based artist Alice Channer presents a playful altered reality. One of a series of cane-shaped pieces, MPLM07 transforms clothing into an abstract sculpture. Removed from the body, cast in transparent blue resin, and draped into its arched form, the store-bought article of clothing appears alien, unfamiliar, and almost unrecognizable as a common garment, save for the waistband discernible at the end. The folds of fabric, easily identifiable when worn or left crumpled on the floor, are re-read as conditions of the medium, removing the object from its own materiality. This suggestion of a body but denial of its form is common in Channer’s sculptural pieces, and emerges from our digital, post-industrial culture.