LONDON.- David Risley Gallery presents their second solo show by Henry Krokatsis, on view through 24 February 2008. Krokatsis began taking the discarded remnants of consecrated prayer candles from churches in 2002 when he recognised these votive ciphers for hopes, prayers and invocations as a highly charged meeting point of the metaphysical and the material.

The remnants of 4,321 of these candles have been melted down and reformed into a huge set of stag antlers, a wick coming from each tine. A seemingly practical object, it rests at odds with its physical and emotional presence.

In ‘Leadedlight’ 2007, the aesthetic of the church is again reconfigured. Here, Krokatsis has collected hundreds of pieces of abandoned glass - from broken window panes, to discarded glass fronted cabinets found on the streets of Harlesden, London. These have been painstakingly cut and reassembled to form a large, complex patterned leaded window that conjures up a salvaged remnant from an out of kilter Cathedral.

Both these works rely in their making, on wilful repetitive action. Selecting and collecting a volume of material reeking of abandonment or disorder and bringing it into a highly crafted, structured framework.

His work is a revelation of previously hidden associations found between our response to repetition and structure as both a framework for liberating the spirit- in prayer, chanting mantras or saying Hail Marys for example, and as a framework to contain madness – as in an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

As well as being an act of faith in the bankrupt, the work emits a low level hum of lyrical psychosis as it traverses the border between the divine and the destitute.