Packing - The Island (2020)

Rosanne Robertson’s practice spans across sculpture, photography, drawing and performance to explore the boundaries of the human body and its environment. Their recent works are made in the open air and explore the ‘terrain of the Queer body’ in the landscape and seascape. Robertson’s body of work entitled ‘Stone (Butch)’ was exhibited as a contemporary intervention within the display of work by Barbara Hepworth at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2019. The Island, Between Two Bodies and Packing continue to create a dialogue with the work of Barbara Hepworth, considering the abstract form as a way of expanding understandings of the figure.

In 2020 Robertson relocated to West Cornwall from West Yorkshire and was selected as a studio holder at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives where they created The Island, Between Bodies and Packing. The Island is a series of submerged and emerging bodily islands in gouache, charcoal and graphite, drawn automatically from experience of swimming around coves, rocks and caves. Between Two Bodies is a pair of jesmonite sculptures cast directly in rock crevices, with one half cast in West Yorkshire and the other in West Cornwall.

Packing is a ‘performance for camera’ of the artist’s body swaying in the incoming tide, filling a deep rock crevice. These works were made in direct relation to the rocky headland of Godrevy Point on the far easterly point of St Ives Bay. This body of works considers gender fluidity and queerness in relation to the seascape and its caves, openings and overspills. Robertson is interested in what they describe as ‘phantom spaces of our bodies and how they connect with the hidden spaces of the coastal landscape’.

Rosanne Robertson has long been interested in Hepworth’s connection to the landscape and this significant acquisition queers the legacies of modernism and creates a statement of intent for The Hepworth Wakefield as it reaches out to broader audiences. The inclusion of this acquisition enables the museum to display multiple and diverse voices, enriching the traditional art historical narratives on display.

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