‘Bastard Gumwood’

Layla Andrews

17 May - 3 June 2023

Falling almost exactly a year after ‘Good Company’ (Layla’s debut at Soho Revue), ‘Bastard Gumwood’ is a sequel of her last exhibition. Whilst the island of Saint Helena remains a focal point of her creative practice, this show marks a significant personal and creative moment for Andrews as the first body of work made since visiting the island for the first time during a personal pilgrimage with her family.

Saint Helena is an island just off the West Coast of Africa and, whilst she has always considered it an important part of her heritage, Layla had previously been familiar with it only through stories from her grandfather, her imagination and a love of cowboy culture and western music (these are two popular cultures on the island). Visiting Saint Helena has brought a new vitality to her practice as she experienced her grandfathers stories first hand, met family members and witnessed the exuberance of the people, nature, food and colours. Bastard Gumwood will feature her unusual Saint inspired take on the still life genre, featuring unusual pairings such as shellfish and the trappings of cowboy culture, as well as vignettes from island life.

The exhibition takes its name from the nickname of a tree, otherwise known as commidendrum rotundifolium, which is endemic to St Helena. The island has forty-five endemic plant species yet many of them are either rare or threatened and at least eight are thought to be already extinct. In recent years however, Bastard Gumwood has been brought back from the brink of extinction. In this exhibition at Soho Revue, the tree symbolises the individual and special nature of St Helena, as well as being a nod to the hope and fun of Layla’s joyful subject matter and palette.

The gallery is particularly excited to be showcasing two especially important works. The first is a large scale work made from wood and linen, which marks the beginning of Layla’s foray into textiles. The second is a fish sculpture which follows in a series of monumental sea-creature sculptures Layla began to make as part of her residency in Brixton Village. Extending her interest in found objects, this is made from paper-maché and chicken wire.