A double-breasted jacket and trousers created by Ivan Forde hang on a wall at the entrance of the exhibition Polymythologies (January 18 - February 17, 2024). Titled Skysuit London (2024), the surface is patterned using cyanotype, a technique that originally belonged to photography and requires iron salts, UV light and water to create a blueprint effect. As his material, Forde uses a Japanese paper known as kozo paper. Made from the inner bark of mulberry trees, this paper holds its shape while being pliable and is often used in art restoration. Held slightly away from the wall by wooden dowels and placed on metallic hangers, the Skysuit is a meticulously crafted captivating opening to an exhibition that focuses on the use of mixed materials to forge a parallel universe.

By integrating a variety of materials and techniques, the three artists in this show—Ivan Forde, Leo Robinson and Richard Ayodeji Ikhide—focus on the possibility of creating new worlds using art. Together the works present a harmonious expression while also inviting viewers to bring their interpretations. Forde’s Nightingale (2023) presents a cyanotype in the form of a printed scroll hung on scented wooden dowels. This work is divided into two sections connected by a narrow silk panel, suspended by a thin thread, resembling a butterfly's open wings as it gently moves with the gallery's airflow. With the scented dowels and movement of the panels, Forde is able to transgress the boundaries of art and invites the viewer, through the stimulation of senses, to contemplate the possibility of a new world.

Forde’s pieces in this exhibition are central to the concepts the three artists attempt to bring forward. The wings of the butterfly symbolise a movement that is mirrored in Leo Robinson’s The Singularity (Portal Interior, 2023), a digital print traced over by watercolour, felt tip and pencil, which is designed as a board game and features many concentric circles moving in different directions. Capturing movement in their work also helps Forde and Robinson highlight the volatility of contemporary art and their desire to focus on its ability to create new meaning. In the face of wars, ecological disasters and the weight of colonisation their works try to escape these histories and conjure unexplored, parallel universes.

Unified by the concept of storytelling, the three artists discuss a macrocosmic view of their lives and the multiple mythologies that have shaped them. In The Singularity (2023), Robinson handwrites phrases such as “Duality must be cut through…check inventory?” and “Vision must be adjusted. Guidance will follow”. Here, he walks the viewer through his board game consisting of diagrams, ceremonial objects, images including those of flowering mountain cacti and a card that says ‘Stone Portal’. While the exact card and its meanings are open to interpretation, this inclusion of the portal is a reference to Robinson’s belief that humans tend to root for ideas and practices that they believe will lead to transformative change. He includes the stone portal to connect with a large audience and allude to the many mythologies, children’s stories and games, such as Pokemon, that reference this transformative change that takes place once entered. Informed further by Plato and his Theory of Forms where the physical world we live in is not real and there is another world that lies beyond it, Robinson comments on this belief in transformation and restoration from past trauma that humans hold.

Similarly, Richard Ayodeji Ikhide was also inspired by philosophers such as Plato and Socrates and recollects growing up reading a book on Greek mythology that sat in his grandfather’s office. Inspired by William Blake’s writing and the ability to create your own mythology, led Ikhide to create work such as ÀPAPO (MANIFEST), 2023. His three works are painted with watercolour and gouache on paper and inspired by the shape of ancient clay tablets with curved and playful edges. He illustrates his mythology in his work and depicts the journey of a demi-god, who is learning and performing rites to discover more about their society. Ikhide’s work here provides an interesting contrast to Forde and Robinson’s because of its specificity and commentary on an individual narrative. The expressions and nuances in his work including speech bubbles and red and blue circles resemble a comic book or graphic novel. Hung close to each other, the paintings resemble the pages of a book.

Polymythologies creates a unique synergy between three artists who examine the idea of movement and transformation in their work. They examine the concept of transcendence and the possibility of opening up an alternate universe. Forde merges techniques including photography, printmaking and installation, to shift the viewer’s expectations of contemporary art. Robinson creates collages of mixed materials to illustrate his examination of a portal that draws the viewer to consider elsewhere. Ikhide’s work is the more definitive, where he brings his imagined world into existence. The three artists inspire a journey of one’s thought and hope to allow their audience to explore the potential and limits of their imagination.