Subject Platter is a modular table designed and made by renowned artist and maker Gary Woodley. Each surface panel of the table has been painted by Rose Davey, and ceramicist Francecsa Anfossi has made terracotta stools with in laid wooden tops.

The table creates a space within a space. It is site specific and occupies the entire gallery at Corner7. It maintains height as it travels out across three steps; those seated in the top gallery will be accommodated close to the floor, and those in the lower gallery will sit upon Anfossi’s stools.

Subject Platter invites four artists in turn, to bring their art to the table. No works are separated by white walls or isolated upon plinths, they are instead forced upon a space that threatens physical engagement.

Laura White is the first artist to respond to the space followed by Ian Hales, Gabriele Beveridge and Lisa Milroy.

Laura White
Table Baroque

30th November – 20th December 2024

Laura White seeks to collaborate rather than impose herself upon the medium with which she works. A physical interaction between artist and matter begins without a clear outcome; exposed to the breaks, mistakes and failures of material, new directions and possibilities are uncovered through process. Clay, dough, silicone rubber and rusting metal are investigated and celebrated; recruited for their immediate material attributes and their resistance to being controlled.

On the occasion of Subject Platter White has made new works in dough; a humble, sustainable and biodegradable material for sculpture.  The works White has produced fold in and away from the surface of the table, like gritty tongues that have encountered synthetic sweets, colour streaks through the work. Their fluid form is organic and in motion, but their surfaces are redundant of moisture and are reminiscent of a life preserved, rather than a life present.

Sometimes the works are edible, sometimes they are not. The role of White’s works is therefore two-fold; art objects in and of themselves; and clay vessels for food, made at neighbouring Rochester Square ceramic studio, which works closely with Corner7. These new ceramic works support the sculptures made in bread, which will be eaten and enjoyed by those at the table.

Sliced by a knife or broken by hands, the bread will reveal a marble interior of turmeric swirling shades, reminiscent of the Baroque sculpture White became fascinated with whilst in residence at the British School of Rome in 2022-23.

White encourages a visceral experience of inside and outside the body, on this occasion taken quite literally as the sculpture is observed, touched, tasted, digested, and expelled.

Bread & Butter event was held during this exhibition

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38031