Group Show

Inspired by a text from the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese text believed to have been written around 400 BC and credited to Lao Tzu, Carpenters Workshop Gallery presents a curated selection of works exploring the idea of value beyond an object’s form.

The selection of works highlights how the functionality of material lies within the surrounding negative space, creating a conversation between matter and immateriality. The exhibition can be approached both by looking at how the artworks are inextricably tied to the space they occupy, as well as the space that they create. The text prompts us to ask, if there is value and function in immateriality, in the intangible.

The artworks presented in this exhibition bear a strong relation to themes expressed in the Tao Te Ching. The emptiness needed to carve out the Verhoeven Twins Cinderella Table, the vast space in Pablo Reinoso’s piece, without which its purpose could not be met, or the ethereal nature of a Fragile Future chandelier by Drift.

“Immateriality

A wheel may have thirty spokes,
But its usefulness lies in the empty hub.

A jar is formed from clay,
But its usefulness lies in the empty center.

A room is made from four walls,
But its usefulness lies in the space between.

Matter is necessary to give form,
But the value of reality lies in its immateriality.

Everything that lives has a physical body.
But the value of a life is measured by the soul.”

Lao Tzu