Reconfiguring the figure in contemporary art
At Timothy Taylor, New York, a new exhibition, ‘Reconfigured’ – featuring work by Polly Brown – invites us to re-examine the body as a subject
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

In ‘Reconfigured’, curated by Rose Easton, the work of ten UK-based artists spanning painting, sculpture, photography, print, film, and animation, challenges our preconceptions of how the body can be depicted in contemporary art.
Photographer Polly Brown’s work often reveals elements of a body – frequently her own – in conceptual, often humorous compositions. As she explains further, ‘the use of the figure in my pictures has mainly been one of functionality. A hand or foot is there to activate the scene; a flailing limb purposefully left in the shot points towards the kinetic. The body is often simply another prop, a tool to further the set up of the picture.’
Polly Brown, Kerosene, 2021. Silver gelatin print, soot, glass, wooden frame.
Sensitive Trigger, 2021. Silver gelatin print, glass, triangular wooden frame.
Brown produced a new body of work for 'Reconfigured', loosely responding to the 19th-century French author Felix Fénéon’s Novels in Three Lines. Here, we see sculptural still lifes blur our perceptions of the figure and extract just a whisper of narrative to draw us in. The photographer speaks about the new series in the context of her wider practice: ‘The process of making this new series has evolved and formalised my works’ relationship to the body. I saw these new works more as obscured portraits.'
In ‘Reconfigured’, The body becomes not just a prop, but also a blank canvas. ‘Using sculptural elements (soot, clay, metal and wood) combined with prints and domestic props, I found I could use the figure to convey whole narratives,’ she says. ‘I liked how this reductive style mirrored the writings of Fénéon. Characters and their fates could be symbolised in small gestures or poses. The body was at once a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker.’
Deep dive, 2021, Silver gelatin print, glass, pewter puddle (melted jugs, plates, buttons, wine cup, candlesticks and tea pot).
As Easton says of Brown's work, ‘when thinking about different ways to consider the body and its many guises, I have always enjoyed Polly’s treatment of the figure in her ongoing practice — abstracted, playful, awkward, with a gentle hint of irony.’
‘Reconfigured’ – which also features contemporary art by Isabella Benshimol Toro, Onyeka Igwe, Gabriella Boyd, Matt Copson, Patrick H. Jones, Olu Ogunnaike, George Rouy, Mike Silva and Jala Wahid – offers an distinctive and unexpected exploration of the figure, as Easton concludes, ‘especially in this contemporary moment’.
Polly Brown, Gunpowder and Shot, 2021, Silver gelatin print, solid silver nails, glass, wooden frame.
Isabella Benshimol Toro, Soft Shell Cochlea N.1, 2021. Used clothes, epoxy resin.
Onyeka Igwe, The Walls Have Mouths, 2021. HD video, stereo sound.
Jala Wahid, Carved My Sole In Two, Soul Halved In Bloom, 2021 Resin.
George Rouy, False Window, 2021. Acrylic on canvas.
Olu Ogunnaike 05:39_14 October 2018, 2021 Charcoal on steel, English yew.
Gabriella Boyd, Socket, 2021 Oil on linen.
Matt Copson, I Survived, 2021, 4K video, hand-painted watercolour animation.
Mike Silva, Mask 2, 2021. Oil on linen.
Patrick H Jones, Squabble, 2021. Acrylic paint and mixed media on canvas. © Patrick H Jones. Courtesy the artist and The Sunday Painter, London
INFORMATION
’Reconfigured’, until 12 June 2021, Timothy Taylor, New York. timothytaylor.com
ADDRESS
518 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
VIEW GOOGLE MAPS (opens in new tab)
Holly Hay is the Photography Director at Wallpaper* Magazine having previously held titles as AnOther and GARAGE magazines. Holly is a regular lecturer at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion as well as working on photography direction for a number of luxury brands.
-
S94 Design makes the most of its uptown location to blur the lines of art and design
S94 Design brings displays from Kwangho Lee, Donald Judd, Max Lamb and more to its Rafael Viñoly-designed location
By Julie Baumgardner • Published
-
Oasi Cashmere is taking Zegna back to its roots in the Italian Alps
Oasi Cashmere – an environmentally-conscious, all-embracing cashmere collection – is inspired by the Oasi Zegna nature park in the lush Biella Alps
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Lynda Benglis’ seductive hall of mirrors and juicy neon eggs in London
American artist Lynda Benglis subverts expectations with new bronze sculptures and otherworldly coloured eggs in a new solo show at Thomas Dane Gallery, London
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Wangechi Mutu’s fantastical creatures take over the New Museum
Wangechi Mutu’s ‘Intertwined' at the New Museum, NYC, until 4 June 2023, is a major survey spanning the full breadth of the Kenyan-born American artist’s work
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published
-
New York art exhibitions: what to see in 2023
Stay up-to-date with our ongoing guide to the best New York art exhibitions 2023 for your diary
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Published
-
Heaven on Earth: architect Toshiko Mori curates Candida Höfer’s sublime new photography show
At Sean Kelly, New York, architect Toshiko Mori is curating a new show by Candida Höfer, spanning a 30-year period of the German photographer’s spatially sublime work
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published
-
‘The Yanomami Struggle’: piercing New York show sheds light on an Amazonian community under critical threat
Now on view at The Shed in New York, ‘The Yanomami Struggle’ is a poignant exhibition dedicated to the friendship between artist and activist Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami people, and their collective fight against invasion
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Published
-
Stephen Shore book ‘Topographies’ sees the photographer take his eye to the USA’s skies
Stephen Shore book ‘Topographies: Aerial Surveys of the American Landscape’ offers a fresh photographic view of the USA’s vast and varied idiosyncrasies
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Pictures from Home: photographer Larry Sultan’s domestic drama arrives on Broadway
Winner of ‘Best Adaptation’ in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards, Pictures from Home at Studio 54 brings the memoir of American photographer Larry Sultan to Broadway, starring Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein and Zoë Wanamaker
By Sophie Gladstone • Published
-
Buckhorn Sculpture Park: inside the art paradise dreamt up by collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin
As legendary art collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin prepare to sell their upstate New York home – and the star-studded collection occupying Buckhorn, its onsite sculpture park – we go behind the scenes of this art treasure trove, and the extraordinary life, work and spirit of the Mallins
By MZ Adnan • Published
-
Theaster Gates’ New Museum exhibition meditates on mourning, materials and community
Theaster Gates talks about his first US museum show, ‘Young Lords and Their Traces’ at The New Museum (until 5 February 2023), a moving homage to the creative forces who came before
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published