Nicky Hirst / Slant
06.06.25 – 19.07.25
(image: Head from a Baptismal Font, limestone, c.1150, Meuse Valley, France, 20×30×10.5cm (courtesy Sam Fogg) in a relationship with Nicky Hirst 'Font' rubber and resin, 20×60×35cm 2025, installation photography by Andy Keate) ⇉ download text and list of works as a pdf)
Slant
as in slope
the degree to which something rises up from a position level with the horizon
as in perspective
a way of looking at or thinking about something
as in to distort
to change so much as to create a wrong impression or alter the meaning of
Slant is an exploration of the everyday, where the simple act of seeing is elevated to an artistic act in itself. In this new body of work, looking and seeing is as important for Hirst as making. Process dissolves hierarchy. Completion is not a conclusion but a convergence: Nicky Hirst, solo at domobaal for the fourth time. The titles of her previous solo exhibitions in the gallery would seem to speak for themselves: The Electorate (2022), Elemental Works (2018), Real Size (2017). Nicky Hirst was appointed 'Election Artist 2019' by the Speaker's Advisory Committee of The House of Commons on Works of Art to create a representative artwork, which now hangs permanently in The Parliamentary Art Collection: 'There Was A Time, 2019–20'.
The works exist in the tension of pairing, of placing, of positioning. A shift in perspective seeks to transform the mundane into the extraordinary (and a beermat too, with words by Dorothy Parker).
Nicky Hirst's practice, between sculpture and installation, seeks out juxtapositions while positioning the everyday. On occasion, it also opens up to and invites collaboration. For this exhibition Nicky Hirst and domo baal are also delighted to invite the following pairings:
Alex Rich will be presenting a selection of pairings from Nicky Hirst's archive in the form of an Atoma notebook publication – one in the gallery and others available to order.
Maud Cotter's sculpture 'all that is necessary' (2001) will party with Nicky Hirst's 'Masquerade'.
Rebecca Geldard's essay 'Custodial Marks' (2022) offers a timely reminder of Nicky Hirst's appointment as Election Artist 2019 and her exhibition 'The Electorate' (2022).
Sam Fogg (the art of the medieval) are lending sculptures that embrace the contemporary everyday with a gentle grin.
Synonyms of slant include incline, lean, tilt, and tip.
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
Emily Dickinson
(Faber & Faber c.1868)