Roger Andersson’s first solo exhibition at Poppy Sebire is titled ‘Babes in the wood’. Andersson exhibits a new series of works on paper, new videos and a mobile sculpture that demonstrate a subservience to process and to materials. Andersson’s work does not abide by rituals or well-established schemes. He relies on the fundamental organic processes that allow one work or action to lead into another.
In his ongoing series of works on paper, also called ‘Slaves by Choice’, the colour pigment he uses is rust collected from old craftsmans tools that, once renovated, he then uses for carving sculptures in wood. The destruction and subsequent creation that takes place mirrors nature’s cycle.
The films that are shown alongside the works on paper are recordings of wild animals’ nightly intrusions in the artist’s garden. They eat and destroy his plants – another reminder of the inevitable necessity of destruction in nature’s cycle.
Central to Andersson’s work is a desire to let things develop at their own pace with an emphasis on the hand-crafted over the mechanic or automated. This approach is not intended as reactionary or as a way to romanticise the old fashioned, but as a gesture of respect for the materials the artist uses.
Andersson explores the paths outside the system of customs and traditions inherent in our culture, not as a rebellion or as an unworldly outsider but simply to explore the relationship between servitude and freedom. In the end one thing cannot have an autonomous existence but has to exist in its relation to its other.
7 December – 23 January 2013
All Hallows Hall, 6 Copperfield Street, London, SE1 0EP
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am- 6pm
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