(un)grounded: as if I was releasing something is a solo exhibition by Sharna Barker that explores the boundaries of contemporary self-portraiture. Her paintings and sculptures—as somatic (re)constructions of self—foreground disintegration, unpredictability, and failure, as ‘self’ appears and disappears interchangeably.
Sharna underscores material and formal precarity to propose alternative modes of representation. In the work, a persistent fragmentation and opening out of the artist’s body complicates an easy or fixed form of identification. In emphasising material volatility, the works offer some stability and accessibility to read them as self-portraits, whilst simultaneously ungrounding the steadiness and security of ‘self’.
Opening Event: Friday, 29th September from 6pm – 8pm.
Image: Sharna Barker, as if I was releasing something (detail), 2023. Paper and latex, 170cm x 3m x 10cm. Photo by Jax Oliver.
