FOLD’s group exhibition FLIPSIDE is inspired by Ursula le Guin’s essay, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. In this essay Le Guin challenges the over-told and exhausted ‘Story of the Ascent of Man the Hero’, that is the narrative of early human survival through male heroism and hunting. She argues that this view stems from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Prehistoric times when the hunter-gatherer would return home with meat and a story, in which he portrayed himself as a hero. Le Guin takes a different view as she reminds us that the main way that human beings stayed alive at that time was by gathering seeds, roots, berries, leaves, nuts and grains. This indicates that the most important tool for survival must have been a vessel or container to hold gathered products, rather than a stick or a spear to poke and hit with. Le Guin refuses the linear, predictable and masculine notion of a ‘Hero’ and his ‘story’ and his sword. By adopting the carrier bag as a cultural device, she celebrates and encourages a more complex and unresolved narrative, made up of many different voices and experiences. The carrier bag allows space for everyone’s voices and narratives to interlace, intertwine and together contribute to a larger, more complicated mosaic.

Thursday 19th July – Saturday 18th August 2018

FOLD
London

Featuring: Saelia Aparicio, Roxanne Jackson, Rosie Reed, Rebecca Jagoe, Phoebe Cummings, Joel Chan, Kamile Ofoeme, Laura Dee Milnes, Lindsey Mendick, Kira Freije, Paloma Proudfoot, Lotte Andersen