18/12/2025
Material reality - delightfully turned completely upside down 🙃
We recently helped with the installation of 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘱 at Buxton Contemporary, working alongside the sculptures of Hany Armanious — and it was a joy (and a challenge) to look closely.
Armanious remakes everyday objects with meticulous detail, often casting them in resin or metal. Timber, stone, paper, concrete, styrofoam, tree leaves — nothing is quite what it seems. A sheet of “cardboard” that looks light turns out to be bronze and incredibly heavy; things that appear fragile are solid and robust, and vice versa.
It was also fascinating to see the making of site-specific wall “paintings,” created using a wall-printing device that were used to print images of mould directly onto the gallery walls. Objects that appear aged, worn, or usually unsightly are recontextualised here as something to slow down with, value, and reconsider.
As conservators, our understanding of materiality and what is valued is usually very intimate and innate— and this exhibition happily broke that instinct at every turn. A total delight to encounter these works up close.
🖼️ 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘱 is now showing at Buxton Contemporary until 11 April 2026 — highly recommend visiting and letting your own perception be challenged.
