Holly Hendry: Fatty Acids

Exploring the idiosyncrasies of the human body, Holly Hendry’s sculptures and installations take formal inspiration from machinery and diagrammatic depictions of anatomy. Expanded casting methods are central to the artist’s process in which she uses an array of materials like steel, Jesmonite, silicone, ash, charcoal, lipstick, chewed gum, soap, foam, marble and grit. Her new work challenges our perception of the neat distinction between our physical bodies, emotions and mechanisation.

The exhibition sees Hendry draw upon the ethos of the Bauhaus school, where complex ideas are distilled to their intrinsic properties. The artist is particularly inspired by Oskar Schlemmer, whose dance and sculpture-costumes explore physical movement in relation to two-dimensional space and the notion of the human body as a mechanical object.

Involuntary processes such as yawning, sneezing, crying and ‘brain fog’ in Hendry’s work are rendered into simple, anthropomorphic forms. Transforming the gallery space into a larger-than-life production line, the artist shows feelings and thought processes being ‘manufactured’ and boxed up in an absurd attempt to rationalise the complexity of our bodies’ processes and outputs.