HEARTH
Curated by George Squires
Mitchel Davis, Jesse Hogan, Charlotte Simpson, George Squires, and Justin Trendall
Schmick Contemporary, Sydney
25 July - 10 August 2024
Tuesday (detail), 2024
Charlotte Simpson
Galvanised steel prop.
330 x 15 x 15cm.
Every Day is a Lifetime (detail), 2024
Mitchel Davis
Childhood blanket, cotton thread, sewing pins, wadding, acrylic paint, tent poles, cloth tape, cable ties, millinery elastic, and builders string line.
Dimensions variable.
Untitled, 2024
Justin Trendall
Earthenware, wood, and acrylic paint.
Dimensions variable
Wide Open Road, 2024
Justin Trendall
Unique state screen print on fabric.
38 x 48cm.
Photo by Annabelle Mcewen
Pressed Skirt (Schmick Contemporary) (detail), 2024
Jesse Hogan
Keane terracotta clay
185 x 17 x 5cm
a farewell for any occasion, 2024
Charlotte Simpson
Cast beeswax, steel powder
4 x 4 x 4cm
Gathering (detail), 2024
George Squires
Eucalyptus, carved eucalyptus
Dimensions variable
Gathering (detail), 2024
George Squires
Eucalyptus, carved eucalyptus
Dimensions variable
Photo by Annabelle Mcewen
kept
by Anthea Duffy
By the hearth, we are kept.
We are kept as:
An inn
A shop
Resolve
A ledger
A lover fed and clothed is kept.
And we keep the fire going.
It is a labour to keep, to support anything so long, but here, there’s never the pull to falter. We make and are made ourselves. We meet here, in a room always teeming, where works watch over shoulders but are done no disservice. Everything is in service:
The work of the hearth is generous. It often comes together quick & cheap, because we’re in a rush to talk about it once it’s done. It’s made as an excuse to meet.
(The keys relinquishing their grip on any need to knock.
The quilt over the fence in case we want to find us beneath it.
The hopeful wood to prop up all-night chat in the face of drowsy fire.)
Keeping the thing is not the same as having the thing. Keep implies that the thing was once lent to us and that, by love or by luck, we were allowed to hold onto it.
We lend ourselves to the hearth as it lends its warmth to us.
We keep each other close.
love,
Anthea
All photos by George Squires, unless otherwise stated