Dive into Issy Wood’s inner world where she explores the power dynamics of femininity and identity at her first solo exhibition in France that is up through January 7th 2024.
The core of the retrospective revolves around the this tiny painting highlighting the word “No” made in 2019. It sets up Issy’s powerful exploration of resistance and the act of refusal in the modern day world. “Study for No” 2019, Oil on linen
“This car interior is found almost exclusively on online car forums - the glove compartment of the internet. Rather than to sell, this photo’s grand motive is to brag, to exalt. You’ll often find motor vehicles with the pronoun “she” attached to them across the board. Romanticism and romance are different, but these amateur car interior photos suggest that it isn’t out of the question for somebody to love their can more than their spouse, to feel safer amongst the gears and leather than in their own home, or to express more pride in new paint job than in their own kid’s sporting accolades.” - IW “Speeding/ losing my touch” 2022. Oil on Velvet
“The jackets are, like all of fashion, a skin-deep assessment of someone’s morals or stature dictated by what they wear. This is both stupid and violent. I was/am always suspicious of the supposed hallmarks of feminine beauty. I feel I arrived very late to womanhood and even later to femininity, picking up signals from my childhood that those two things symbolised weakness. Long nails, immaculate domestic spaces, fine jewellery, and clothing: there is always a question about whether opting into these things is empowering or ceding to some toxic precedent. A lot of time I ask myself, “Do I want this? Do I want this coat, these nails, this set of porcelain, a man with this expensive car? What the hell did I inherit? What are my duties? The “no” comes handy in here” - IW “I won’t/ always do the right thing”, 2021. Oil on linen.
“I think of the double velvet paintings as “dates”. Here the perceived femininity of the cow-hide jacket and the perceived machismo of the knight’s breastplate are confused. The intricacy of the armor and the implicit violence of wearing the skin of an animal throw into question who is wearing what” -IW “Steed energy”, 2021. Oil on velvet.
“This painting was the very coy start for what later became self-portaits. It felt safe to introduce my own hand into the frame before addressing my own face. This is also a reliable portrait of how I find imagery in auction catalogues. Growing up, I was always admonished for touching family photos, in case my greasy hands ruined their surface. Here I am celebrating adulthood by touching whatever I want.” - IW “Study for me, sampling” 2021 Oil on linen
“Another stolen nude relegated to backdrop status, giving the main role to the uselessness of four novelty napkin-holders and an ugly mantle clock from eBay. As a painter in 2023, the most fun I can have is to destroy the rules of historical allegories, confuse ideas of wealth and prestige, and sanctify the Godless” - IW “Ordering for the table”, 2022. Oil on linen.