Space-Craft

For her exhibition at Tramway 5, Rachel Adams will create an installation of new sculptural works, which extend her exploration of the relationship between science fiction, classical sculptural motifs and decorative craft techniques. These elements combine to question the historical and cultural value of materials. They are brought together to create a temporal collapse, opening up a dialogue between present and past notions of the future.

In Adams’ practice an interest in the aesthetics of science fiction is joined with an awareness of how certain materials and forms have a specific cultural identity and place within time, particularly craft techniques such as tie dye, macramé and crochet. Similarly the methods employed by television programmes of the 1970’s in order to produce an “alien” environment are presented as symptomatic of a larger cultural shift, one marked by a growing distrust of the ceaseless progression of technological advancements that defined the preceding decade. Our continued, and increasingly nostalgic, engagement with new age themes such as self-improvement is something that Space-Craft acts to articulate.

By combining science fiction and the domestic Adams creates an unsettling scenario, which merges reality with fiction, appearing at once meaningful and useless. These works oscillate between an idea of truth and fantasy, seeming to offer a fragmented image of a potential future that has never come to pass.