Polly Apfelbaum

​Polly Apfelbaum
And the desire to touch
This exhibition is full of colour, it is bright and joyful.
The colours of the ceramic target pieces, pop from the wall, drawing you closer to look at the many colours and variety of patterns within the ceramics. Whilst upstairs, there was an assortment of shoes left along a bench on one side of the gallery, their owners padding around in stockinged feet so that they could curl their toes into the plush multi coloured rugs, which ran along the upstairs gallery floors.
Strings of handmade ceramic beads hung like curtains, some high in the ceiling space and others, tantalizing low, seemingly tempting the unforgivable sin of touching or pinging.
The show is textural, with a mix of hard cold ceramics and soft plush rugs, the invitation to walk on these rugs breaks the usual convention of ‘not touching’ where as the temptation of touching these beads, strung in a line across the room, serves to remind the visitor that they are in a gallery space and touching is not allowed.