Corpus Callosum is a joint exhibition at Deli Felice between Kim Flame and Steven Cummings and is named after the bundle of nerve cells that sit between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and enables communication between the two. ‘When you walk into the deli,’ Kim explains, ‘the central aisle represents the difference between us as artists, with two different mindsets – a right brain and a left brain working in close proximity.’
Each artist takes a side of the space, with Flame’s work in the show subtitled “All along the liminal”.
‘The word liminal,’ she begins, ‘means threshold, a crossing over space, where you have left something behind yet you are not yet fully something else… 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote:
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
The artist paused to let that sink in before recommencing. ‘One kind of liminal space is that floaty in and out of sleep feeling… Liminal space can also be more long term, for whatever reason, you feel caught and cannot move on, and as much as you would like you can’t hurry the process.’ Again Ms Flame allowed the silence to take over.
‘Covid’s ‘New Normal’, this Lockdown 2 is a liminal space. Something is unfolding around us that has a significant impact on our next steps. While we wait, all around us liminality becomes physical. Heaving areas, businesses once thriving are empty, dead plants and unopened post… Lockdown has brought many people face to face with their inner selves, their strengths and vulnerabilities. Shaking ourselves out of habitual lives, what we have known, but not what’s coming. The chrysalis stage of the caterpillar, it knows to spin the cocoon but not what will happen. In and out of pandemic, I am familiar with these experiences, living in a seaside town, the meeting of land and sea. Heaving or abandoned fairgrounds, the carnival route after the parade. Rain, illuminations, faces emerge from shadows into the light or just out of reach. I enter voluntarily, my art, my cocoon the canvas, hoping to reach out to that something that’s waiting to be known, to be seen, watching for who, what and where gets projected from that which I have known.’
All works are for sale and start at £50.
Deli Felice, Albion Street, Rotherhithe, SE16 7JQ until November 28th. Times: 8.30am – 5pm. Admission: Free.