UPROOTED

At the heart of Marta Feyles’ practice is an exploration of physical and psychological proximity and distance. Entanglements, also known as grovigli in her native Italian tongue, are a key device in her work through which she delves into concepts of geographic displacement, borders, perimeters and boundaries. 

Using string, paper, film and found objects, Feyles creates intricate sculptures, drawings and mixed media installations that use her personal experiences as a starting point from which to explore notions of quantum entanglements and networkism. Drawing on her family life growing up in Italy and the literal, ‘uprooting’ that occurred when she moved to the UK, she enacts crafts and trades that are nested in memories of home, play, family and loss, as well as alluding to strict religious rites and symbolism from her Catholic upbringing, to invent ceremonies of creation that strive to overcome the physical impossibility of compressing time and geographical space. Marta describes the process as her own Ariadne’s thread; a game in which gaps, voids and liminalities become generative forces in themselves, manifesting in complex, votive, and intimate works.