Kira Freije

Consciously moving between structures of poetry and sculpture, Freije gathers pieces of scrap metal, discarded objects, or offcuts from her studio while simultaneously collecting words or loose phrases jotted down in her sketchbook. She fuses these two crafts together in her installations. Assemblages of steel figures, glass blown lamps, and ruinous forms are scattered through a space with poetic titles binding these concrete constellations through a narrative web. The focus on figure links her with sculptors such as Caroline Mesquita or Anthony Gormley, while the disheveled, decaying quality of Freije’s alloy bodies sets her apart. Like a theatre set frozen on stage or a historic moment halted by a spell, an unsettling sense of longing pulses through Freije’s tableaux. Cast metal figures kneel in penance with their heads in their hands, or brittle limbs reach out in ecstasy, their mouths crying out in silence. This drama is undeniably heightened through Freije’s dependency on medieval material processes such as metal casting, forging and glass blowing, which all leave textural scars on the surface of these pieces. The pairing of laboured forms with lyrical titles fuses the tension between tenderness and brutality, a common theme in Freije’s work. The theatricality and finite nature of these scenes speaks to the fragility of our current times in terms of the precarity of planetary and societal conditions, whilst still having space for rejoicing and communing. All is not lost in Freije’s world.