I was following you into the green of your mind, green at an angle, scaling up in colour, green of a still shadow on the lattice of field. Light joins in a continuum. (Rachael Allen)
Ben Sanderson (b.1986) works in painting, drawing and textiles, often returning to existing pieces and transforming them: monotypes on paper are developed and echoed in printed elements that appear on canvas, canvas is mulched to become rag paper, which in turn becomes a ground for new painting.
In Green at an Angle, Sanderson’s first solo exhibition, new work from the last eighteen months offers an investigation into processes of capturing human and non-human experiences of time, cycles of production and reproduction.
Sparked by repeated encounters with nearby Trebah Gardens, where for the last three years Sanderson has visited the UK’s largest magnolia tree during the week it is in bloom, the paintings, drawings and prints attempt to channel the array of sensations that plants offer us.
Green at an Angle, borrowed from a phrase by poet Rachael Allen, hints at a skewed relationship with the natural world. As time has passed during lockdown, and as many of us have experienced nature only through the portals of windows, doorways or the boundaries of our gardens, the titles of the works each take on a biographical significance, even while the seasonal change heralded by the flowers shown continues without regard to human time.
The show will be accompanied by a limited edition book, a collaboration between Rachael Allen and Ben Sanderson, with poems and paintings growing in parallel.
