Death, what?

The sun’s corpse will roll on.

by Fabrizio Mifsud Soler

Set in the green surroundings of the Piedmontese countryside, Cascina I.D.E.A. – the ex-rural complex now dedicated to art and experimentation is currently presenting “Death, what? The sun’s corpse will roll on”, a solo, end of residency exhibition by Sarah Entwistle (1979) curated by Elsa Barbieri.

Without ever having known him, Sarah Entwistle inherited from her paternal grandfather, Architect Clive Entwistle (1916-1976), a large collection of unrealised projects and personal documents, which she filters and sifts through in search of motifs, images, materials and forms.

Sarah’s dismantling of the formal language – linear, monumental, immobile and masculine – leads to a circular, permeable, open form that revolves around material precariousness and counter-balance. Her practice moves from the fascination that the natural malleability of materials and the historical practice of the architecture of spolia, or the appropriation of materials into new forms, exert on her. Spolia, or the reuse of building materials taken from previous constructions no longer in use, is common throughout human history. Entwistle’s spolia embrace a wide range of application and is to be read in terms of a cyclical becoming, in nature as in human events, according to time and spirit.

Sarah Entwistle, Death, what_ The sun_s corpse will roll on. Curated by Elsa Barbieri. Cascina I.D.E.A. Exhinition view, ph. Ludovica Mangini (1)

This dimension of continuity and eternity is reflected in the use of materials, the choice and opportunities of which are closely linked to the idea of circularity: copper, iron, aluminium and building waste are essential components in Entwistle’s transformation of the exhibition space into two articulated labyrinths that determine new ways of being present and relating to the work, even trusting one’s own sense.

«There’s a sense that the forms and materials are not mixed or static rather in process, as with our bodies, chemical process and mutability are essential, ongoing and eternal» – Sarah Entwistle, April 2023.

Circularity, and non-linearity, together with the polarity between past and future, ruin and rebirth, are expressed through a new corpus of tapestries and sculptures, both wall and floor. As a set of different habitats, Entwistle transforms each room of the exhibition space into a structure in order to determine a new way of being present and relating to the works.

On the lower floor, a clear, precariously balanced white and grey colour scheme predominates however on the upper floor, red and blue radiate into space through fabrics, papers and copper sculptures, excavating and denuding a design rationality.

Sarah Entwistle, Death, what_ The sun_s corpse will roll on. Curated by Elsa Barbieri. Cascina I.D.E.A. Exhinition view, ph. Ludovica Mangini (2)

Appealing to the irrational, the invisible and the energetic, Sarah Entwistle with “Death, what? The sun’s corpse will roll on” affirms the concept of regeneration, as well as rebirth, reincarnation, resurrection and transformation, as a powerful force against personal and cultural determinism.

Sarah Entwistle, “Death, what? The sun’s corpse will roll on” curated by Elsa Barbieri is on view until September 2023 by appointment at:

Cascina I.D.E.A.,
Via Guglielmo Marconi 26,
Agrate Conturbia,
Piedmont, Italy