LONDON.- Cooke Latham Gallery is presenting Eating a Peach (A hair’s breadth escape) by Anousha Payne as the fifth instalment of their online Isolation Exhibitions and a precursor to the artist’s solo exhibition at the gallery in September 2021.




At the heart of Anousha Payne’s practice is the idea of the object as a cultural and spiritual signifier. A visual anthropologist she mines cultures, religions and folklore to produce her own unique “imagined artefacts”. In Eating a Peach (A hair’s breadth escape) snakes are present throughout the work. A loaded symbol, the serpent represents fertility, creativity, eternity and original sin as interpreted by different cultures. In Payne’s ceramics these attributes are reimagined; like sloughed skins the works retain the impression and power of these beliefs but are also uniquely their own.

Eating a Peach (A hair’s breadth escape) derives in part from Tamil folklore. Folklore is by virtue a fluid art form, often relayed by word of mouth, a medium which can change and mutate over time. As such it is the perfect inspiration for Payne’s mercurial practice. Payne describes her works as “hybrid objects that remind us of the fluidity between human, animal and inanimate objects.” This concept of animism, the belief that all material phenomena have agency, perhaps even sentience, is queried throughout.

Material hierarchies and values are also questioned by the work. The earthy malleability of clay is combined with the metallic glazes and shiny emblems of consumer culture. Clay assumes fleshy folds, is punctured by a Dior-like toggle or grounded by a plait of coarse hair. Their textural ambiguity mimics their conceptual fluidity. Looking at them the viewer is aware that these could be objects of veneration or utility. They are works open to endless interpretation; herein lies their power.