Lily Petch
‘watching night fall like closing the first set of eyelids’ includes a melding of material symbolism, archaeology and poetry, embedded in ‘The Writer’s Room, Holy Trinity Church’. The show will include both an installation and a reading around Lily Petch’s book ‘The written unit, signs, gravemarkers and the left behind object’, extracted from her undergraduate degree show installation at The Slade School of Fine Art in May 2024.
‘To pay close attention to the way in which we treat writing as a tool to preserve presence beyond the boundaries of the body.’
Petch’s work ruminates on the fragile yet overwhelming resilience of historical texts and the materials which support and surround their longevity. Playful yet sombre, ‘watching night fall like closing the first set of eyelids’, considers the properties of substances associated with burials. Thinking on the safety of subterranean space, Petch’s installation forms a poetic rumination on the preservative functionalities of: paper, grass, soil, skin, brick, brass, stone and flint - enhancing these materials which speak toward the vulnerability of human lifespan and its material legacy. Elements of the install react to environmental factors such as light, heat and air which are eventually corrosive to the usual materials of records historically.
Readings will take place on 10th February 2025 7:30pm-8pm; show opens at 6:30pm.
