SOFT HANDS ON MOSSY ROCKS is an exhibition of research, ideas and artworks by Ellie Barrett and Kerry Tenbey.

All of the things around us pulsate. Material stores energies, ripe for mining. Stuff we come into
daily contact with absorbs information about the places and people it interacts with. Objects
rumble with knowledge.

Hacking into this information could tell us more about our bodies, our identities, and our
interactions.

Both artists explore overlaps between material, place, identity, process and information. Ellie
uses accessible materials – salt dough, tin foil and soap – to represent fragmented body-parts,
rock formations and industrial structures, suggesting an overlap between material and social
exchange. Kerry compares material information to data-mining with references to invasive
plants and familiar material forms, inviting us to perceive stored energies contained within. Both
artists navigate the blurred boundaries between the natural, the man-made and the handmade.
Objects in this space are alive.

SOFT HANDS ON MOSSY ROCKS not only presents sculptural and 2D works which explore
these ideas, but brings research into the gallery space. The exhibition is an immersive diagram,
mapping the various activities which both artists have collaboratively engaged in during the
development of this project and placing them in connection to the work. This includes exploring
specific locations, gathering material to make work and creating new connections between
physical sources of meaning.