AnnaLeaClelia Tunesi and Althea Wilson at 508 Gallery

From the 20 September, AnnaLeaClelia and Althea Wilson will be presenting work together for Contemporary Archaeology Goes Pop|Paradise Preserved

Contemporary Archeology Goes Pop, a series, images courtesy of AnnaLeaClelia Tunesi

Opening on the 20th of September, the show at 508 Gallery by Italian potter AnnaLeaClelia Tunesi and British Photographer Althea Wilson consists of new works inspired by the pottery practices of antiquity. The pieces created by Tunesi, are designed to look at a glance like those taken from archaeological digs. Yet on further inspection, they reveal themselves to be carefully created fascimiles, not of specific archeaological finds, but of Tunesi’s own experimental approach.

Tunesi created these pottery projects, not by throwing them on a wheel, but by using a method known as ‘coiling’, one of the oldest pottery techniques in existence. After building up the pieces using this process of coiling clay on top of itself, she slashes into them to mimic the effects of the passing of time and the makrs of use which appear on all excavated pieces. Glazing the piece multiple times in a variety of different tones adds not only to its antique air, but also allows Tunesi to play around with the shades of her work.

Althea Wilson, Still life Antique, image courtesy of AnnaLeaClelia Tunesi

In using this carefully unsystematic technique to create her pieces, Tunesi also achieves the fragmented reality of archaeological discovery: with one in five pieces being discarded, her work has bits missing, spaces where the onlooker must make their own jumps to figure out how what came before links to what is going after. For Tunesi, these blank spaces are the most beautiful part as, to quote the artist, “What is missing is where the imagination begins.”

Althea Wilson’s photography embraces a similar historicity, though through the lens of a different era. In her work she revisits the traditions of the Old Masters Still Life paintings. Fruit and dried flowers contribute once more to the theme of passing time, mixing with the delicate colour palette to create a lethargic musing on disintegration throughout time.

Contemporary Archeology Goes Pop, image courtesy of AnnaLeaClelia Tunesi

The show lasts ten days, from the 20th to the 30th of September, at 508 Gallery, Kings Road, Chelsea, London SW10 0LD.

To find out more about this, and AnnaLeaClelia Tunesi’s upcoming exhibitions, click here