Penny Goring at Arcadia Missa

Artist: Penny Goring

Exhibition title: No Escape from Blood Castle

Venue: Arcadia Missa, London, UK

Date: April 15 – May 27, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Arcadia Missa

Arcadia Missa is pleased to present Penny Goring, No Escape from Blood Castle, the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

This is the second iteration of this body of work, the first of which was entitled Escape from Blood Castle, and took place at Campoli Presti in Paris last spring.

Penny Goring makes drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos, and poems that access recurring personal trauma visions, and by layering these with grief, anxiety, imagination and rage, the subsequent invented mythologies become explorations of the contemporary state of emergency – where violence is commonplace, structural, intimate, where loss of freedoms is forgotten or keenly lamented, and there is no rescue or escape.

She has exhibited at, amongst others, ICA, London, Tate St. Ives, UK, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, South London Gallery, London, and Federico Vavassori, Milan.

***

Two lovers Escape from Blood Castle, there is no Escape from Blood Castle, no Escape from Confinement or Control, or Eternity, Opium, Poison, or or or LUCKY IN AN UNLUCKY WAY.

Thrill to the Blah Blah Blah anything, look to the Stars and the Mud, try Disappearing, pray to be Rescued, or profoundly Forgotten, or or or GROVELLING FOR THE VERY SLIM CHANCE.

Crawl into Ruined old age, Confess petty Crimes in the garden, bolt for your Freedom while limping, or run with your broken Heart thumping, or or or SHARP POINTY STICKS IN YOUR EYES.

The mechanisms of Safety are Weaponised, every process designed to do Harm, no Secret corners to huddle, or failing to Cope, or extreme Naked yoga, or or or LAUGHING IN AN UNLUCKY WAY.

upside-down
kissing your fingers
plague bones
it hasn’t been fun for ages
your face on swarm girl
kitchen sinking
red hand red hand grey sky
meets your ankles
we break your legs and carry you to the block
on a very ornate chair
a very ornate chair stuffed with saint’s hair
and your fingernails
because you asked for it
because the crowd wants it
because it was decreed
in our walls
the ghost of scratching susan
told us
her lies are the greatest
this is what she says:
blah blah blah anything
my poor darling, anything.

STORM FRUIT
PANIC CELL
BLOSSOM BITCH
BLOOD SHOW

GHOST TOURIST
DEVIL SCAMMER
FIBBING DRIVER
KNIFE BUZZ

HIP FLASK
BIGGER BIJOUX
MERCY FUCKER
BAG BIRD

GOLDEN BOLLOCKS
FUTURE BACON
ABSTRACT GAMBLE
CAPS LOCK

DARKER MATTER
DEEPER LOTION
TOXIC CIRCUS
DEATH TOLL

SEE-THROUGH NYLON
DISCO STRIPPER
FEVER FLOWERS
BOMB DROP

BLOODY CASTLE
DOLLY MOTION
SUGAR WIDOW
CLOCK STOP

BLAH BLAH BLAH ANYTHING:
POISON ON YOUR TONGUE

Installation view of Penny Goring, No Escape from Blood Castle at Arcadia Missa, London, 2021

Penny Goring, Bleedy Doll, 2019, Fabric, beads, lace, wool, 165 × 44 × 12 cm (65 × 17 ⅜ × 4 ¾ inches)

Installation view of Penny Goring, Doom Doll, 2019 and Penny Goring, War Doll, 2019: Doom Doll, 2019, Fabric, 100 × 35 × 12 cm (39 ⅜ × 13 ¾ × 4 ¾ inches); War Doll, 2019, Fabric, 94 × 42 × 13 cm (37 × 16 ½ × 5 ⅛ inches)

Penny Goring, Grief Doll, 2019, Fabric, 126 × 35.5 × 21 cm (49 ⅝ × 14 × 8 ¼ inches)

Penny Goring, Plague Doll, 2019, Fabric, lace, 61.5 × 61 × 20 cm (24 ¼ × 24 × 7 ⅞ inches)

Penny Goring, Severed Leg (Emergency), 2019, Fabric, 89 × 17.5 × 15 cm (35 × 6 ⅞ × 5 ⅞ inches)