Tabatha Andrews: The Slightest Gesture

The Slightest Gesture is an exhibition of new sculpture and moving image works by artist Tabatha Andrews, who is known for making immersive sculptural installations that question our reliance on sight, drawing attention to non-verbal communication, touch, movement and listening. The exhibition forms part of a socially engaged, collaborative sculpture and dance project, in which the artist worked with learning-disabled and neurodiverse young adults in Exeter to explore diverse ways of being and moving in relation to sculpture and environment. It celebrates intimate, everyday gestures; of routine, of care, joy or exhaustion, translating them into sculptural form in a variety of tactile, haptic materials. Whether carved, cast, bound, or knotted, captured in video or sound, or repurposed from pre-existing objects, each work suggests a relationship to the body – of how they might feel or fit against it. They are informed by, or co-created through, the artist’s long-running relationship with Freefall+, a group of young adults with a range of learning disabilities who meet weekly at Exeter Phoenix to engage with the arts in an inclusive space. Working alongside members of South-West Dance Hub, Andrews led workshops with the group that explored translation; from one state to another, one material to another, one language to another, one body to another. The project celebrates the primal, elemental experience of creativity that sculpture can inspire. The visceral response to touch, texture, weight, balance and movement that all humans share.