Artist Afra Eisma, who is based in the Netherlands, transforms The Tetley, with textile works spilling out across the galleries, accompanied by soft sculptures, sound installations and ceramics.
The exhibition is included in Part Two of LEEDS 2023’s Year of Culture, focused on playing. Visitors with a sense of fun are encouraged to sit and rest on, feel and cuddle, interact and participate with the central artwork on display in the Atrium.
Throughout the run of the show, the exhibition will also play host to school children, early years visits and
community groups.
Eisma’s work reimagines various social settings, from the domestic scene of a lounge, to a
gathering round a campfire; in the Atrium, you’re invited into a convivial meeting of aliens. (Ed: Well, of course you are!)
Eisma works to facilitate intimate and unusual social settings beyond the environment of the family home. This desire to create warm, joyful and inviting spaces is a response to increasing unease, discomfort and uncertainty surrounding socialising following the pandemic, and resulting isolation.
Afra Eisma, splashdown tender, 2023. Installation view at The Tetley, 2023. Photo: Jules Lister
This is a recurring method for the artist, using bright colours and playful approaches to engage with darker emotions and experiences. Garments hide activist rumblings, a stomach becomes a container for ‘butterflies’ and long arms offer to take you by the hand.
Afra Eisma, puppet theatre, 2023. Installation view at The Tetley, 2023. Photo: Jules Lister
Eisma’s heart-shaped javelin is a metaphor for the finite energy we carry in our quiver to ‘stir up’ and tackle our challenges. Seeking to imbue the space with a certain liveliness and informality, as well as pleasures, assembly and embrace, Eisma also creates room for anger, ambiguity and reflection.
Afra Eisma: splashdown tender is supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the Embassy of theKingdom of the Netherlands in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, LEEDS 2023 and No Man’s Art Gallery.
Afra Eisma: splashdown tender
23 June – 22 October 2023
The Tetley, Leeds
Free entry.
Cover photograph: Afra Eisma, celestial dreams, 2023 and splashdown tender, 2023. Installation view at The Tetley, 2023. Photo: Jules Lister.
