Anchored in myth, Paul Battenberg-Cartwright’s practice of rituals conjures notions of duality and tension, be that through a taut relationship between a sculpture and it’s user or through performative acts carried out by the artist himself. His exploration of the ancestral, culminating in a wide range of works from Conceptual performance theory, drawing, painting and sculpture challenge the lines between known truths and constructed histories that influence the human experience. Pushing the boundaries between comfortable observation and active participation, new life is brought to natural materials and forms, whilst his works as part of the Battenberg-Cartwright collaboration celebrate the spiritual duality of opposing genders. In the work, body becomes vessel. To express, to be put to work, to be confronted. Opposing states are pitched against each other to draw out a dance of energies, and historical and mythological sources that inform the artist’s practice are drawn upon to translate this energy into object.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         

(c)2019 Paul Battenberg-Cartwright