S1 Artspace was pleased to present new work by Kate Allen and Lynne Monks & Rebecca Marshall. Collaboratively they used the physical environment as a point from which to begin a purposeful getting lost. By turning their attention to the land they affirmed what is beyond the personal and social and acknowledged other places, which are not here quite yet, nor yet, quite visible.

Kate Allen presented large-scale drawings inspired by the Aokigahara forest in Japan. These dense woods have inspired myth and suspicion; the woods are considered the most haunted site in Japan, iron deposits in the soil are said to render compasses useless trapping the unsuspecting on its disorientating floor – but they are perhaps most notorious as a popular site for suicides. Aokigahara was described as “the perfect place to die” in Wataru Tsurumui’s bestselling book The Complete Manual of Suicide. The drawings depicted life-size tree trunks, the tops of which disappear off the paper. Stretching from floor to ceiling, Allen’s drawing was sparsely lit, almost disappearing into the darkness.

Lynne Monks & Rebecca Marshall presented a compendium of work inspired by an on-going tale involving happenings that took place on an island. A ‘map’ of the island hung opposite Allen’s trees and unfolded out over the floor which accompanied a scale model of the island lit with miniature lights.

The setting was imaginative and fanciful yet not devoid of reality. This fairytale-like stage set questions what could have been or perhaps more poignantly what could be. The exhibition was only open from 4 – 7pm so that no natural light entered the space further contributing to the fantastical nature of the stage set.