BODIES AT REST
2024
A solo exhibition by Michael Hautemulle
Arkade Gallery, Aberdeen
Bodies at Rest explores the complexities of rest—not just as an act of relaxation, but as a multifaceted state encompassing stillness, recuperation, complacency, stagnation, death, all forces enacted on a body in a state of equilibrium, etc.
The works question what it means to rest in a world where our time, our bodies, and our energy are commodified. Where there is no rest without labor, and labor is only toil when there is no surcease.
The exhibition also examines the inherent tension between labor and love—how laboring at something you love differs from laboring for something you love, and the toll taken when there is no remuneration; love and labor unrequited. Where does resting become labor, or love, and when is it merely omphaloskepsis? Not that these need be mutually exclusive terms.
Juxtaposing the pastoral with the provocative, the exhibition uses diverse, often rough materials, often leaving construction marks in place, to delve into the tension between the idyllic and the labor required to manifest it—and whether the “ideal” is even an achievable state.
Through its multifaceted approach, Bodies at Rest invites viewers to contemplate their own experiences of rest and the delicate balance between force and stasis.
