Formas de Reexistência
What holds the structure
A soft green glow in the evening red
Working Site – Artissima Turin 24
Unperceptibles
The Storing Skin
Memory Breaks – ARCO Madrid 23
Is There Yet Space for Light
Cave Paintings
Gaze to See, Gauze to Perceive
Nicht eine Stadt, die war
Woven Space
Blue is not a Colour
JMGLHS FW 20/21
A System of Thing-Shapes
Windows Cry Neon
What do Animals do During the Week
Places in Between Nowhere and Everywhere
Nº1 do Largo
WHAT HOLDS THE STRUCTURE
Galeria Foco, Lisbon
May — July 2025
What Holds The Structure is Maria Appleton’s second solo presentation at Galeria Foco.
Through acts of weaving, un-doing, and re-use, the artist, materially and conceptually questions the notion that life is made-up-of and upheld by neatly intersecting threads. Rather, Appleton suggests that events follow an uninterrupted unfolding, made up of shifting perspectives, which incorporate knots and are shaped by loss, in the form of gaps, opacities or voids in the weave. The title of the exhibition at once asks and declares that there is a thing behind all things, including structure, which holds everything in a chaotic balance that is beyond our comprehension, yet within haptic reach.
Since the beginning, Appleton’s material research into textiles has focused on the tensions between the physical rigidity of the loom and its supple output. The artist has toyed with this contradiction by largely presenting her work within the fixed geometrical boundaries imposed by the machine, while employing other techniques and gestures, such as the removal of crossings, the incorporation of images, layering, and most recently knotted threads, into her various forms, to elaborate on and translate larger questions and patterns that arise when one is thinking through craft…
Chiara Siravo
