Exoskeleton: a container for a life. Ecdysis: the shedding of an exoskeleton when an invertebrate outgrows it. The arthropod emerges, soft-skinned and pale, expanding furiously in its newfound freedom and vulnerability. Bodily fluids flood to the surface, stretching the skin. Wounds can be healed and even missing limbs can be regrown. Within a few days, the fresh cuticle hardens and turns darker, like the tanning of leather. Interior becomes exterior; the body becomes a vessel to be shed in a new cycle of metamorphosis.

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This exhibition explores traces of touch that emerge through materials. Drawing on Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘carrier bag theory of fiction’ and Karen Barad’s writings on touching and the inhuman, Ecdysis draws together artists working with notions of vessels, ritual, the animacy of matter, and the temporal transformation of materials.

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Ecdysis is a Group show curated by Hannah Rowan.

Artists: Emii Alrai, Nora Aurrekoetxea, Charlotte Edey, May Hands, Anousha Payne, Paloma Proudfoot, Hannah Rowan, Eve Tagny.

Exhibition text by Anna Souter

Photo credits Rob Harris