Sarah Casey: Negative Mass Balance at the Henry Moore Institute
Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor
Henry Moore Institute presents Sarah Casey: Negative Mass Balance, a new exhibition inspired by objects emerging from melting ice in the Swiss Alps.
Artist Sarah Casey uses glacial archaeology as a starting point for delicate drawings and paper sculptures. The idea that new things emerge from the loss of ice is what inspired Casey to create the centrepiece of the show: Emergency! What Was Is (2024–25), consisting of two translucent drawings on waxed paper. These large-scale pieces hang floor to ceiling and are ‘drawn’ using the process of perforation – thousands of tiny holes piercing the paper form outlines of glacial artefacts. Although the shape shows a specific subject, the light coming through makes the image shift and change as we move through the gallery. The works are also made using glacial flour – a fine sediment left behind by glaciers as they melt.
You’ll also find Ice Watch (2023), tiny glass watch faces etched with glacial landscapes, and Ablations (2023) – risograph prints documenting Casey’s experiments with exposing wax drawings to sunlight in alpine environments.
Sarah Casey: Negative Mass Balance presents works that are as beautifully fragile as the artefacts they’re inspired by.
