Joanne Masding: The Moveable Scene of the Page

Masding’s playful exhibition investigates how images, objects and words link together. Through a combination of sculpture, fictional writing and typography, Masding transforms the gallery into a space where language can mingle, collide and flow.

Following on from her 2024 book, Body of Pieces, the exhibition at the Bluecoat presents new writing by Masding and follows her strategy of using fiction to explore the nature of objects, their physical properties and how they relate to us. Masding describes writing as a ‘sculpting tool’ allowing her to defy the laws of physics and go inside objects. In the gallery, visitors will explore sculptures made from metal, ceramic, plaster and shimmering textiles which are suspended from a series of elongated copper sculptures. Pages of Masding’s new works of fiction will hang from these copper frames, for visitors to tear off and read.

The Moveable Scene of the Page also features Masding’s new alphabet sculptures, inspired by, and in the shape of Monster Munch crisps. This novel new typeface is formed by extrusion; a means of forcing soft material through a hole in a flat disc. Monster Munch is made using the same technique, but as this tube of material comes through the extruder it is sliced into individual, flat claw shapes. Masding’s ceramic letters become poetic sculptures, with phrases like “tongue tripping over a glazed ceramic marble” suggesting a collision of words and objects in our own bodies.

When working between the disciplines of writing, sculpture and performance, Masding is often thinking about translation, and how the essence of an object can change. When a drawing is made of a bunch of grapes, it is translated into a flat image and some information is lost (the weight) but something is also gained (small details are highlighted). When that image or artwork is written about, it is translated again into letters and spoken language.

Through her work, Masding gives us the opportunity to look closer at this translation process. She suggests that art is often a task of slowing the world down, and holding it in place so we can take a closer look. When we produce a drawing or take a photograph of something, we fix that object in place and study it. Masding’s work seeks to fix the act of translation in place, giving us the chance to slow down and examine the process.

Fri 4 Apr - Sun 11 May
Free entry