TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD THROUGH ALCHEMICAL LOVE
MARCIA TEUSINK
4 – 17 MARCH, 2022
Our latest InTheWindow exhibition sees MARCIA TEUSINK turn to alchemy for the solutions to the world's ills, in this immersive multi-media experience.
Marcia Teusink is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores climate change, precarious structures and possibilities for renewal through painting, sculpture, video and mixed media. Her recent projects have focused on a historic plant nursery that existed in Hackney, London, in the 1700s-1800s, which was instrumental in the global transport and selling of plants; an oil spill and the volunteer response to it that took in the San Francisco Bay in 1971; and sculptural responses to the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa in 2018. Teusink frequently collaborates with other artists, including an ongoing collaboration with Tanya Gill; their video and installation piece about the last 50 years of US climate policy and its failures was recently shown at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (USA) in 2021. She is also part of Ground Collective, a group of artists that organises exhibitions and events inspired by their various walking-based artistic practices. The artist has studied extensively with the artist-duo Rosenclaire in Poppiano, Italy, and has been artist-in-residence at Kala Art Institute (CA, USA), The Morris Graves Foundation (CA, USA) and The Studios at MASSMoCA (MA, USA) amongst other places. American-born and London-based, she has artworks in private collections in Europe and the United States. Her studio is currently in Stamford Hill, London.
@marcia_teusink
An alchemist sets up her laboratory InTheWindow. The scene contains paraphernalia and clutter from her experiments, including upturned furniture, glass containers, measuring tools, detritus, and lots of feathers. The feathers refer to the mother pelican, a mediaeval alchemical symbol of self-sacrifice in the pursuit of transformation: the bird goes to the extent of piercing her own breast to feed her young with her blood. Scattered objects are presumably used to transform ‘prima materia’ into something new. Mysterious images showing beings who are part human and part animal or plant can be spied as well. Not knowing where else to turn, the alchemist is hoping to save the world from ecological decline and collective despair through her many experiments. Videos provide some glimpses of her enigmatic processes…
- Marcia Teusink, 2022
- Marcia Teusink, 2022
Marcia Teusink is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores climate change, precarious structures and possibilities for renewal through painting, sculpture, video and mixed media. Her recent projects have focused on a historic plant nursery that existed in Hackney, London, in the 1700s-1800s, which was instrumental in the global transport and selling of plants; an oil spill and the volunteer response to it that took in the San Francisco Bay in 1971; and sculptural responses to the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa in 2018. Teusink frequently collaborates with other artists, including an ongoing collaboration with Tanya Gill; their video and installation piece about the last 50 years of US climate policy and its failures was recently shown at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (USA) in 2021. She is also part of Ground Collective, a group of artists that organises exhibitions and events inspired by their various walking-based artistic practices. The artist has studied extensively with the artist-duo Rosenclaire in Poppiano, Italy, and has been artist-in-residence at Kala Art Institute (CA, USA), The Morris Graves Foundation (CA, USA) and The Studios at MASSMoCA (MA, USA) amongst other places. American-born and London-based, she has artworks in private collections in Europe and the United States. Her studio is currently in Stamford Hill, London.
@marcia_teusink
