Turning

Text from Becky Forsythe:

Table, bed, almost chair, cupboard, mirror, desk. In this new sculptural installation by Joe

Keys, in the exhibition Turning in Gallery Port, a collection of frames and containers are

marks in the space and connotations for other things. Be it as form, object or feeling, the

frames are assembled and anchored in ways that define different meeting points and

fragments. The negative and positive space within and around them gives new attention to

the integrity of the frame as a functioning traditional structure, most normally used to house

or hold something. In place of this role, words like compromise, turning, corner, meeting, rely,

care, construct, hold up and rest upon, surface in what is missing, and are a way to describe

what we see, and what they in turn make visible.

The catalyst to these frames is based on the accidental or coincidental play that occurs in the

workshop with the leftovers following the act of making – like something you do, after you do

the work. In this instance though, the work is a premeditated act of cutting down oak strips

without too much thought or planning, making further cuts on 45° angles and joining things at

their edges. Assembled in different configurations that could resemble a table, bed, desk,

phone stand, ladders or scaffolding, the simple abstracted forms and objects rely on the

practicality of the process of their making. Like normal items, they recall building, a house, or

architectural forms, and it is clear that their function as frames is compromised – or renewed.

As viewfinders or outlines that, in scale, relate to our bodies in common and unfamiliar ways,

and the act of viewing.

Present alongside the frame-sculptures is a triptych of prints; minimal, concrete or visual

poetry. Physically wrapping a corner, the sentence “Turning a corner“, gives shape to words,

while the three long similarly oak frames serve as punctuation in its reading. The phrase is

not directly an emotional metaphor or something that has already been decided, but rather a

way to illustrate connection and for the option to be there. The different, yet closely

connected, parts of Turning acknowledge and support and are helpful. As entities in a unified

installation, they frame the space, each other and themselves in new sites and locations of

meaning.