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Folds

Loom gallery, Milan, Italy

23 November 2024 – 30 January 2025

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LOOM is pleased to announce Folds, Alexandra Barth’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

A painting of a drapery is defined by three constitutional qualities: construction, i.e. the foldings,

the texture (velvet, cotton,…) and the light. We could even subtract one of the elements and the

drapery would still remain recognisable. This subject has served artists throughout history as one

of the least binding disciplines in regards to the representational requirements. Thus drapery is a

borderline abstract subject. Transcending its literal representation, it becomes a vehicle for artistic

expression and interpretation. As with her previous works, Barth puts emphasis on the structural

element. In this case it’s the folds. Folds can symbolise the interplay between control and sponta-

neity, where the arrangement of fabric or material can evoke a sense of harmony or disarray. What

appears chaotic may have underlying patterns of order.

Especially in The Blue curtain, Barth overemphasises the tectonic quality of the drapery, it feels

almost as being curved out of a rock, transfiguration the soft velvet into its opposite. In the Ultra-

marine curtain she refers to strict medieval geometric simplification. The Ochre painting on the

other hand, feels very human skin like, soft and organic. Barth treats the curtains as monuments

of the private life…

Curtains are some of the few omnipresent domestic objects that have been given the permission to

show a bit of frivolity. For centuries, the window covering drapery was a signifier of household’s so-

cial standing and identity. Not only considering the question of fabric and the design of the folding,

but also choosing to have them open or closed. So, there’s self indulgence vis-a-vis the outside world

together with the crucial functionality of the curtains as we use them to protect us from external

world. Be it the sun, the cold, or the surveillance.