Falsework brings together artists whose installations animate devices and infrastructures that usually recede into the background as functions and foundations. In construction, falsework temporarily supports a structure until it can stand on its own, then disappears from view. The exhibition begins from this provisional condition, considering support as both a physical reality and a perceptual relation. Through these constructions, it examines contingent relationships between structures and the spaces they occupy, between human bodies and the mechanisms that shape them, and between temporary apparatuses and the seemingly permanent structures and social forms that remain as their residue.

Featuring works by Molly Grad, Steven He, Amélie McKee, Robin Finch Pickering, Ana Teles, and Chris Thompson, the exhibition traces a shared interest in forms that resist being reduced either to function or to representation. Structures may initially appear legible but their meanings shift through material, scale, position and perception. Rather than presenting meaning as something fixed within the object, Falsework's ephemeral installations create spatial situations that gain meaning in relation to each other and the site.

The exhibition creates the possibility for the works to form narratives and allows speculation around them, while exposing how the works of Falsework themselves inevitably recede from the space, ultimately assuming the same provisional condition they examine.

* Falsework is an architectural term that refers to the temporary structural support system used during the construction of buildings, bridges, tunnels, and other heavy works. It supports formwork, permanent structures, or both, until they become self-supporting after curing or installation.

Exhibition curated by Catherine Li.

Poster design inspired by the cover of A. W. Irwin and W. I. Sibbald’s Falsework: A Handbook of Design and Practice (Granada, 1983).



Thames-Side Studios Gallery
Thames-Side Studios
Harrington Way, Warspite Road
Royal Borough of Greenwich
London SE18 5NR


Open Thursday-Sunday, 12-5pm. For general Thames-Side Studios Gallery enquiries please email [email protected]
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