Pettigrew is known for interweaving photography, poetry and performance with digital practices. For the Paris presentation of A Sphinx Looking for a Poet, the exhibition invites an evocative ‘decoding’ exploration of her practice. Pettigrew has created three fabric photo-sculptures expanding on photography from the limited edition book, alongside prints on aluminium.
The artist lived in Paris in 2016-17 where she initiated an ongoing writing practice featured in the book, in relation to image-making Pettigrew says: “The selected text is chronological but the photographs don’t follow a timeline, placed where it felt right to give space to or pull the reader in closer to the writing. A mode of collecting and capturing events, exchanges and feelings that otherwise may have been lost”.
Each offering opens out into a rich tapestry exploring the sensuality of the everyday. Embodying a sense of spaciousness; stretching and looping time and place. The scale and form of the works in the show transform space, creating fluid and distorted versions of the photographs found within the book.
Exhibited at 3537 / Dover Street Market, Paris (2023)