Exhibition Details

Paul Cocksedge Critical Mass and New Curation in The Loft, photographed by Tijs Vervecken:
In Critical Mass, Paul Cocksedge returns to some of the most industrial, heavy and raw materials available: plate steel and marble. He explores what happens when they are pushed into forms that speak of tension, intimacy and the human hand. The Critical Mass series holds an energy, something on the edge of collapse or explosion. While working on this series, Cocksedge found himself reflecting on the speed and change of two of the most pressing issues of our time: AI and climate change. Every conversation, most thoughts, led back to this in some way. In contrast to these contemporary issues, being in the factory around a team of makers, welding, cutting and calculating, felt refreshing
The second body of work sits at the other end of the emotional spectrum. Cocksedge takes blocks of marble, quarried and cut and brings them together in ways that feel soft. The forms nestle, lean and gently compress one another; the material is hard, ancient, cold, but the shapes are warm, intimate, even affectionate. Together, these two series sit in dialogue. One is sharp, angular, abstracted. The other is rounded, gentle, compressed.