surviving destroys
the guidance it consumes
– Drenched Co.
Firenze Lai buries a map inside the body and lets the limbs consume it. The feet soften as the arms lengthen and the face recedes, until the body can find its bearings only by pressing against itself. Corpo bussola.
In 'Topographer', the mountain wears the person. The figures in 'Versions' circle an emptied centre, while beneath the horizon of 'Slow Sand' the bodies stretch as though the ground has started to give. The body becomes landscape; the landscape begins to move. Figura sfondo.
A hand repeats as route, a foot as counterweight. The figure changes shape to remain where it has been thrown, furnishing each dead end with another part of itself. Riparo gabbia.
The bend sometimes arrives before its need, strangeness already composed for the showroom. Then the open face of paint refuses its fetters and the body returns bruised, its edges difficult to place. Maniera ferita.
These figures never find north. They slowly become the distance between norths. Nord altrove.
* Five Italian phrases borrowed from painting, faulty bearings for paragraphs that never quite reach true north.
See https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/firenze-lai-masons-yard-2026
See also https://www.whitecube.com/artists/firenze-lai
See also https://www.soaked.space/2026/11/exhibition-review-firenze-lai-north-and.html
Caption: Image above: Installation view, Firenze Lai, North and True North, White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, 2026.
© Firenze Lai. Photo © White Cube (Eva Herzog). Courtesy of the artist and White Cube.
We take great care to respect the integrity of every image. The views expressed here are ours alone and do not represent those of the artist or gallery.
@whitecube @firenze.lai
#drenchedco #soakedspace #FirenzeLai #NorthAndTrueNorth #WhiteCube #WhiteCubeMasonsYard #ContemporaryPainting #FigurativePainting
