“Although sculpture has always been thought of in relation to bodies, in Fenwick’s work the position of the spectator is not passive (receiving sensible amounts or information), but active: the possibility of going through a small, unique dance, either with the gaze or with the entire body.”
“Fenwick’s work invites a change of pace, a space to turn attention to our body, its rotations, and its ability to share itself with other materialities.”
ACTION, SOURCE AND MATERIAL FORM THE BASIS OF PROCESS
Light, particles, waves, and vibrations fill space and air with potential, creating rhythmic exchanges within dynamic environments.
Fenwick has long been interested in the big questions, those surrounding myth, archetypes, human drives and human purpose. We are drawn into Fenwick’s fantastical anthropology museum, the scattered objects erotic and mischievous: many of them are weapons, and their shapes allude to female sexuality; vulvas, mouths, breasts.
The Eros/Thanathos drives anchor the body of work, giving it a political undercurrent. The tension they create reminds the viewer that in the midsts of playful discussions of female identity there remains violence, inequality, and danger for women in this age. The undercurrent of violence is never far, sometimes in the form of awkward fingers crawling out of a mouth and sometimes weaponised as a silent promise shining in the form of sharply polished blades of metal.
Fenwick’s series is a celebration of female hedonism, comically tongue-in-cheek and subversive; it sets up an arsenal of questions, literally and metaphorically, and does it with a grin, as an erotic arsenal of feminist humour.
November 2022 - JMB
Portfolio
2025
The whirling Dervish - a composition of movement in space between earth and air.
20 Suspended elements of laser-cut copper-plated steel set in 3 series.