Josh C. Wright, A Handful of Dust at dArts, London

A Handful of Dust by Josh C. Wright, curated by Olga Romanova, at dArts, London, 21/11/2024 – 12/12/2024.

Exhibition text:
“And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” – T.S. Elliot

It is a place where the end of one form signals the beginning of another. Within this space, there is a rejection of permanence in favour of renewal, revealed through the observable decay of elegant industrial sculptures. Josh C. Wright’s solo exhibition ‘A Handful of Dust’ offers the viewer a wasteland – a post-industrial platform where they can contemplate their mortality. These delicate yet robust works, displayed throughout this desolate space, allude not merely to the inevitable conclusion we all share but to the journey of decay that we and all things endure arriving there.

The basis for this body of work was drawn, in part, from the excerpt above from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), a text that contemplates the human condition through themes of decay, loss, and rebirth. Various artworks in this show have reached their final destination and will not leave the exhibition intact. There is a precariousness to Wright’s works; they feel unsteady and heavy as if they could collapse at any moment.

Perpetual Star (2024), a swinging light sculpture forged from salvaged by-products of other works, explores the themes of regeneration and continuity. Suspended from the ceiling and propelled by a hidden motor, it oscillates between calm and chaos. Occasionally, it resembles a pendulum clock, marking the passage of time; at other moments, a wrecking ball, sporadically striking the stair rail and damaging itself. It serves as a metaphor for the urban spaces that inspired it: never static, flowing through cycles of obsolescence and gentrification, where transience reigns.

A Handful of Dust is an invitation to contemplate endings. Wright’s sculptures embody the undoing of things, a kind of elegance before the fall. There is beauty in this unraveling, as it reveals the raw state beneath and exposes deeper truths and vulnerabilities. Deterioration may be a prelude to a conclusion, but it is essential for transformation. This exhibition offers more than just an encounter with decay; it manifests renewal, suggesting that even in the transition of falling apart, there is potential for something new to emerge.