VITRINE participates for the first time in DAMA 2019, with a new sculpture and drawing work by Sam Porritt. The sculpture, titled ‘Citadel’, 2019, consists of canvas, card, gesso, artist's hair, sand, ground glass, and wax crayon and contiues the artist’s interest in using a crenelated line to evoke the sense of a fortification.
Porritt deploys a crenelated line to economically make a distinction between inside and outside, in this instance positioning the viewer outside the compound, separating us from the source of a warm light emanating from the sculpture by three consecutive layers of battlements. It is at once a humorous yet acid tinged reflection on power and forms of its physical consolidation. The accompanying drawing was a new piece in the artist's 'Help' series.
Referencing both individual and shared histories, Sam Porritt's work in drawing, sculpture, text and the moving image is largely concerned with human agency and its associated ethical implications. What can at first appear to be unconnected ideas and questions articulated in disparate ways are in fact often the same intractable problems only viewed from different perspectives.
DAMA was founded in 2016 as an independent and collaborative project located in historic buildings in the city centre. The 2019 edition, titled “Change“, welcomed 11 international galleries to present 11 emerging artists with site-specific artworks in full dialogue with the rooms, distributed on approximately 500 square meters and characterized by baroque atmospheres and original frescoes by Domenico Guidobono.
Sam Porritt (b. 1979, London, UK) graduated with a BFA in sculpture from the Chelsea School of Art and Design (2002), and in 2005 he received his Post Graduate Diploma from the Royal Academy Schools, London. He was selected for the Swiss Art Awards 2017. He has been exhibited internationally in galleries, institutions and triennials including: Museum Bellpark, Kriens, CH; CIRCUIT, Lausanne, CH; CAN, Neuchâtel, CH; SALTS, Basel CH; PEER, London, UK; South London Gallery, London, UK; Foundation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, FR; c.o.m.p.o.s.i.t.e, Brussels, Belgium; MOK, Rotterdam, NL; Toves, Copenhagen, DK; Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, IS; MONA, Tasmania, AUS; 17th Tallinn Print Triennial at EKKM, Tallinn, EE; and VITRINE, London, UK and Basel, CHHe has a forthcoming exhibition at Paradise Works, Manchester, UK (November 2019).