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13.6.25 – 29.9.25
THE WORK OF FIRE

Clementine Keith-Roach
Christopher Page

“The Work of Fire” is an experimental collaboration by Clementine Keith-Roach and Christopher Page for which the two artists have made a series of polychrome reliefs together on site in Athens over the past three weeks. They are not only painted sculptures but torchbearers that will illuminate Alkinois.

Keith-Roach and Page, having lived in Athens some years ago, returned after 8 years with a suitcase full of plaster casts and paint brushes (and two kids) and set about making their first series of dual authored objects.

THE WORK OF FIRE

The history of trompe l’oeil can be traced back to Pliny’s anecdotes about the great masters of fourth century BC Greek painting. His stories of lines, birds, grapes and curtains have always inspired the exploration of painting’s illusionistic language. The collaboration between Christopher Page and Clementine Keith Roach is a beautiful and erudite elaboration of this tradition.

Over the past month a symbiotic relationship has played out in their Athenian studio. With their young family as much a part of the work as themselves, the two artists have forged their personal styles into something totally new. The result is “The Work of Fire”, a collection which doesn’t entirely belong to either but is the product of a dialogue between sculptor and painter exploring material and form, time and patina, colour and meaning.

The interplay of light and shadow, before only suggested in Christopher’s work, is now bought to life by the physicality of Clementine’s plaster casts. These plaster casts, taken from the artist’s own limbs, re-enact and celebrate the act of making. We are bought to the Promethean animation of mute material- the moment when clay gave form to mankind and with it birthed the flame of creativity. The central role of nurture in this process is drawn out as arms and hands support one another in delicate gestures evocative of the devastating dexiosis handshakes on Classical Athenian funerary sculptures and Roman scarcophagi.

Meanwhile Cristopher’s serene wooden panels endlessly explore the optical qualities of colour on aged marble. Faded patina, before only subtly traced in Clementine’s work, is now unravelled by Christopher’s careful layering of paint. Cracked surfaces, blemished spots and sandy textures are built up in an inverted act of antiquation. The palette is deliberately limited as luminous reds and blues are framed by modest ochres and blacks, evoking a vague memory of Pliny’s four colours and the polychrome world of Roman houses.

As Alkinois is lit up with candle-light and poetry, the experience of these already sensorily charged works becomes totally all-encompassing. The feeling of entering the inside of a temple, a tomb or even a cave is not unintentional. This experience of their work, so absent in the way most museums or galleries display it, is a reminder of the deeply entangled worlds which give rise to creation.

Gabriel Coleman, June 2025

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