Balls

AN EXHIBITION BY MARY HACKETT
PART OF RADIANT PAVILION

04 September—12 September 2021

‘Balls’ is a gathering of solid and hollow metal spheres created for play.

Some hollow balls are formed from flat sheets of copper, silver, and steel (some seamless, others not) using silversmithing processes, and transformed into vessels, not to pour with, but to paw, and pore over.

Some of these balls produce sound when shaken, the movement reverberating in the hand.

Warmth of flesh transfers to the metal, responding to creature touch.

Some of these spheres weigh the hand down with a dense mass of steel, while others are lighter; cavities surrounded by thinner metal.

All are begging a playful response.

For this body of work, Mary Hackett is concerned with material interactions and sensorial experiences which reveal the restlessness of matter.

Movement is required and insisted upon.

To make them there was movement, to respond to them there is movement.

‘Balls’ is a study of materiality from motion’s perspective.