Bea Bonafini continues to develop an inlay technique, using carpet, following a horizontal process of continuous and obsessive slicing and splicing. She repeats the fragmentation to complicate the image, so that it appears in syncopated forms, to slow down the viewer’s reading of the work. In Watch Me As I Fall a central figure in chunky boots descends the stairs as she looks at herself in the mirror. Her boots become detached and walk by themselves, as new comically hairy versions of themselves; the mirror and her reflection multiply into a myriad of floating marks across the work; two phantom upside-down figures haunt and taunt her, the voices in her head taking form in the empty space. The cascade of marks and gestures increases her potential of tumbling down the stairs as she descends.

Bonafini’s ceramics such as Scissors, Roman use a similar process of cutting and combining as the tapestries: nerikomi, a Japanese technique used to make agateware. The marbling of mixed clays, vulcan stoneware and porcelain, and the carving further distorts the object, glazes slip into cracks. The tools are loosely based on ancient roman objects, and reference the fabric scissors used for most of the other works. Both the writings and the extensive Rome exhibition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, heavily influences the show. In his retelling of the famous Geek myths, Ovid intermingles humour, surrealism, romance and tragedy. The transformations that happen to his characters frequently take us by surprise, abruptly disrupting our expectations. Talk to the Hand reinvents and transforms personal and ancient myths.