Ghost Notes

FOLD is pleased to present 'Ghost Notes', a two-person show by Carolina Aguirre and Christopher Stead. Told through the lens of two transient tourists from two very different lands, 'Ghost Notes' meditates on lost futures and yearning for connections within the spectral space of isolation and otherness. Nesting between parallels and heterotopias of deviance, we are invited to find kinship with the ungraspable. With a shared affinity for the care of discarded and unwanted matter, both physical and psychological, Aguirre and Stead’s practices weaves together gleaned detritus and mined materials, turning vice and sorrow into virtue, reimagining Fold Gallery into...

FOLD is pleased to present 'Ghost Notes', a two-person show by Carolina Aguirre and Christopher Stead.

Told through the lens of two transient tourists from two very different lands, 'Ghost Notes' meditates on lost futures and yearning for connections within the spectral space of isolation and otherness. Nesting between parallels and heterotopias of deviance, we are invited to find kinship with the ungraspable.

With a shared affinity for the care of discarded and unwanted matter, both physical and psychological, Aguirre and Stead’s practices weaves together gleaned detritus and mined materials, turning vice and sorrow into virtue, reimagining Fold Gallery into a chamber of regional, cultural, and collective memory. Both earthy and digital, organic and industrial household waste, electronic wires, and construction netting are sung into other-worldly harmony with pulsing audio waves, forgotten footage and mineral pigments.

Heightened by internalised post-pandemic and post-Brexit socio-political isolation, the slow cancellation of the future, a desire to connect with foreign lands, and questions around belonging are fictionalised into stories whispered through immersive installation, sculpture, painting and video. 'Ghost Notes' presents alternatives, escapes and riddles that, by dwelling in the underground and the unseen, allow us to get lost and reconnect.

Aguirre is an Argentinean artist based in London. Her interdisciplinary practice spans painting, photography, writing, sculpture and installation. The mythopoetic works relish in the confusion of boundaries, questioning the experience of belonging as it relates to location, nature, and otherness through a psychological and anthropological lens.

Stead’s shapeshifting practice focuses on the conditions of post-pandemic materiality by turning life’s lemons into lemonade through the agency of found matter. Informed by ecological and economic positions, discarded materials are recovered and up-cycled to create a bubbling stock, which is woven together, creating spectral nervous systems that index the entanglement of past, present and lost futures. The recycled matter grows and gathers in a fertile manner into a reusable source, which can be repurposed time and time again.

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Carolina Aguirre, 'Nest', 2022. Waxed clay, string, branch, gofun, 120x30x30cm. Courtesy the artist and FOLD.

Carolina Aguirre (b.1990, Chile) is an Argentinean artist based in London. Her interdisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, writing, and video. The mythopoetic works question the experience of belonging as it relates to location, nature, and otherness through a psychological and anthropological lens. Having lived in Chile, South Africa, Egypt, and Wales, Carolina graduated with a BA...

Carolina Aguirre (b.1990, Chile) is an Argentinean artist based in London. Her interdisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, writing, and video. The mythopoetic works question the experience of belonging as it relates to location, nature, and otherness through a psychological and anthropological lens. Having lived in Chile, South Africa, Egypt, and Wales, Carolina graduated with a BA First Class Honours in Graphic Design from Central Saint Martins and worked in the film industry as a director, composer and editor before transitioning into a full time art practice. She is currently enrolled in the MA Painting programme at the Royal College of Art (2023), where she is a recipient of the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award and the 2022 Kyoto University of the Arts Exchange Programme. She has exhibited in London, Paris and Kyoto, and is part of Pigeon Park, a London-based artist collective.
Christopher Stead, 'ENTANGLEMENT', 2021. Recovered electrical wires, fishing nets, ropes and studio detritus, bound to bedsprings, 60 x 45cm. Courtesy the artist and FOLD.

Christopher Stead is a London-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, and documentarian of British counterculture. In 2016 Christopher graduated with a First Class BA Hons in Fine Art at the City and Guilds of London Art School, where he received the Painter-Stainers Scholarship Prize and Brian Till Art History Thesis Award. He is currently midway through the MA Painting programme at the Ro...

Christopher Stead is a London-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, and documentarian of British counterculture. In 2016 Christopher graduated with a First Class BA Hons in Fine Art at the City and Guilds of London Art School, where he received the Painter-Stainers Scholarship Prize and Brian Till Art History Thesis Award. He is currently midway through the MA Painting programme at the Royal College of Art, London, and is the co-founder and director of the London-based curatorial collective Pigeon Park, which was created in response to the post-pandemic threat posed to artists’ working conditions in the wake of the Covid crisis. Through collaboration, Pigeon Park works with artists to create immersive sculpture and painting exhibitions in unique spaces, fostering artistic growth and engagement within the public sphere in times of restrictions, cutbacks, and uncertainty.