Jessica Rankin: The Nostalgia for the Infinite at White Cube Bermondsey, 2021

Ina

May 17, 2021

3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Jessica Rankin: The Nostalgia for the Infinite was at White Cube Bermondsey from 17 March to 1 May 2021. It was her fifth solo show at White Cube in London, and it was made of paint and sewn thread on linen and paper. This page is a record of the show.

Square abstract canvas of pink, yellow and pale blue washes with red stripes at the left and bottom, from High Thought Tunes (2020)

Jessica Rankin: The Nostalgia for the Infinite – What Was the Show?

The paintings and works on paper mixed washes of ink and acrylic with embroidery thread. From a distance, the stitches and the painted marks are hard to tell apart. Up close, the thread sits on top of the surface in dense runs.

The show opened online on 17 March 2021. Visitors could go into the gallery from 13 April until it closed on 1 May. Entry was free.

Who Is Jessica Rankin?

Rankin was born in Sydney in 1971 and lives and works in New York. Her work draws on poetry, memory, maps and diagrams of the sky, and she often sews words onto the edges of a canvas.

Square painting in orange, pink, red and blue washes with a small pale crescent at the centre, from Warm Dawn (2020)

How Does She Combine Paint and Thread?

In the larger works, such as High Thought Tunes (2020), acrylic, ink and embroidery sit on linen that measures 182.9 by 243.8 centimetres. The stitched lines follow the painted ones, or cut across them.

A Breath Between (2020) is 76.2 centimetres square, in acrylic and embroidery on linen. Its white ground carries an orange disc and a few black lines.

Pale canvas with an orange circle at the centre and thin black stitched lines running down both sides, from A Breath Between (2020)

Which Works Were on the Walls?

To Light and Then Return (2020) is 152.4 centimetres square, in ink, acrylic and embroidery on linen. Blue strokes run through a yellow splash.

Square canvas with blue brush strokes and a yellow splash on a pale ground, from To Light and Then Return (2020)

I Am Not Quite You But Almost (2020) is a diptych on linen, with each panel 121.9 centimetres square. The two panels carry green and pink marks.

Two adjacent panels with green and pink painted marks and a pale gap between them, from I Am Not Quite You But Almost (2020)

What Is Strange Currents?

Strange Currents (2020) carries fragments of text from Etel Adnan's book Sea and Fog, sewn along its edges. Grey, blue and magenta paint run through dense areas of thread.

Canvas of grey, blue, magenta and yellow washes with dense lines of stitching, from Strange Currents (2020)

Were There Works on Paper?

Yes. The paper works were smaller, in watercolour and ink with graphite and thread. Eros once Again (2020), at 45.7 by 61 centimetres, is one of them.

A watercolour on paper with green and yellow splashes and fine orange and red lines, from Eros once Again (2020)

Blue and gold washes, with thread lines running through them, make up another sheet.

A pale watercolour with blue and gold washes and thin stitched lines across it

A third paper work gathered blue dots and yellow splashes.

A pale paper work with scattered blue dots, yellow washes and a pale blue cloud in the centre

Several framed watercolours hung together on one wall, a few of them with sewn text at the edge.

A white gallery wall with five framed watercolours of different sizes, each in green, orange or blue

What Is White Cube Bermondsey?

White Cube Bermondsey is a gallery at 144–152 Bermondsey Street, south of London Bridge. I covered another show in the same rooms in Isamu Noguchi: A New Nature.

The street is a short walk from Borough Market and from Tower Bridge. Another gallery show with works on a large scale is on my page about Frank Bowling at Hauser & Wirth.

The Nostalgia for the Infinite: Practical Notes

📍 Where: White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ.

📅 Open days: Online from 17 March 2021. In the gallery from 13 April to 1 May 2021.

🎫 Admission: Free.

🚇 Getting there: London Bridge is the closest station.

🗺️ Nearby: Borough Market and Tower Bridge.

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