Grace Prince

In the Wait and See Gallery, next door to the store, in via Santa Marta 14, Prince will show pieces from the ‘Static Fragility’ and ‘Unsettled Balance’ collections as well as a vase created specifically for this event. Her practice addresses authenticity, gesture and entropy, themes illustrated in the title of each collection and brought into functional works via a specific method.

This method works to contrive light juxtapositions of material and form via a slow sensory process with the perceptive outcome of speed and chance, such as a haiku in 3D, dedicated to the expression of much within the fewest possible compositional attempts. The result is a suspension of actions, of gestures, harnessed together through a satisfying tension in form.

Born in London in 1992, Prince’s work explores authenticity, gesture and entropy expressed in functional objects. Featured in the exhibition are pieces from her two most recent collections ‘Unsettled Balance’ (2020) and ‘ Static Fragility’ (2022), each of which explores their attendant sensations in the form of seating, lighting, tables and vessels. Within her practice, Prince researches the motive of these suspended movements, meaning that each object’s apparent structural precarity is central to its expression, resulting in a disarming yet captivating construction that belies each piece’s essential functionality.

The ultimate intention of Prince’s work is to harness movement, tension and sensation within these static objects. Born from a reflexive approach to materials and form, each piece is first loosely mapped out in collage. Whether that be two-dimensional — layering cut-out images, screenshots or drawings — or three, in the form of precariously assembled maquettes made with found materials. By means of a careful process of balance, subtraction and chance, Prince works systematically — element by element — until a final configuration is slowly revealed. Once the form is reached, she then translates the model into a functional object either herself or in collaboration with an artisan.

For example, the ‘Static Fragility 1’ table is composed of an amalgam of materials, both off-cast and expertly crafted. A textured cast aluminium bar, hand-formed and cast using the lost wax method, is contrasted by industrial steel dowels, painted iron bars and a carved maple batten, from wood that had been left forgotten at a workshop for several years (leaving it in the ideal state to be hewn) and discovered again by chance. While the object may appear impossibly fragile and risking collapse at any moment, it is, in fact, structurally sound: the seemingly frail wooden legs conceal robust metal reinforcement.

A new work titled ‘Standing Collapse’, made specifically for the exhibition will be a collaborative piece with the artist Alice Fiorelli, a vase formed of gypsum, stainless steel, and carved maple, resin and Canadian soapstone, inscribed with Fiorelli’s illustrations.

Artist Statement “My method of working is to contrive light juxtapositions of material and form via a slow sensory process with the perceptive outcome of speed and chance, such as a haiku in 3D, dedicated to the expression of much within the fewest possible compositional attempts. My practice researches entropic sensations, illustrated in the title of each collection. I want to freeze a movement in the understanding that an object becomes more poetic in the suspense of entropy or collapse. But it crucially remains as a permission, not an action, the final pieces are solid and sturdy and of course functional.” — Grace Prince