Cancer Season: Leo Costelloe, Ella Garvey, Aitor González, Mia Graham, Kyler Garrison, Hattie Landells, Albie Lucas, Salvatore Pione, Monica Seggos, Georgia-May Travers Cook
hair, velvet ribbon
In Sun Signs, the seminal 1968 text on astrology, Linda Goodman defines Cancers as those born between 22nd of June and 23rd of July. Consummate home bodies, Cancers are the mothers of the zodiac, and ruled by the moon, their moods ebb and flow like an ocean tide. The works in Cancer Season embody the qualities, preoccupations and pitfalls of these watery beings.
In Untitled (Me and Mum as Potatoes and Dad as a House in the Back) Aitor González recalls childhood memories of holding his mother’s hand. Depicted as potatoes, mother and son swirl around each other in loving embrace. Similarly surrealistic, Hattie Landells’ La Concha (Mirage I) and Solstice (Mirage II) whimsically depict levitating conch shells. Exploring the mythology surrounding mirages, Landells examines the emotional reactions one has to desire. Central to these three works is a sense of nostalgia, both for things that have
happened and for things that have yet to happen.
Kyler Garrison’s Fragile/Perfect neatly captures the interplay between sentimentality and emotional vulnerability. Garrison painted the work at a time of personal upheaval; in the midst of moving studios and homes, Garrison felt without anchor. He expresses his physical and emotional dislocation with a bold red splatter across a series of otherwise serene porcelain angel figurines, interrupting the composition as his own life has been interrupted.
In the extreme this torrent of emotions can have dark consequences: statistically Cancers are the most likely to commit murder, most often crimes of passion. In Georgia-May Travers Cook’s Like a Poison in a Tea (Apéritif) a figure carries a tray of tainted wine to an unwitting victim.
Though sometimes hard in medium - pine, sterling silver – there is a softness of subject that unites these works: the view from a home, a romantic dinner, a mother protecting her colony. The works’ elevate everyday life into something worthy of study and celebration . For these works, as with Cancers themselves, sentimentality is their strength.
