Soho Revue is pleased to present, ‘Even the Worm Will Turn,’ an exhibition of paintings by Nettle Grellier and Georg Wilson. The idiomatic title points to the basis of the show in local folklore, fairytales and the unique storytelling tradition of Cornwall, an area to which both painters have strong connections. In this new collection of works the artists, like modern ‘droll tellers,’ seek inspiration in myth and legend, assembling their own visual language with which to chronicle contemporary concerns. ‘Even the Worm Will Turn,’ is an exhibition in which viewers will find joyfulness and play, but which also encourages a confrontation with the darker and more complex concerns of contemporary rural life.

Nettle’s paintings depict distinctive nudes, figures that simultaneously seem relaxed in and intimate with the natural landscapes they inhabit but which are also at times awkward, frustrated and uncomfortable. Heavily informed by living in rural Cornwall, her works fuse folklore with canonical symbolism in order to address contemporary issues, such as concerns about the climate crisis and the complex reality of a seemingly idyllic communal life in the countryside. The pigeon is a recurring motif throughout this body of work, as a symbol of the prevalence of gossip in small town life, which is further hinted at by her titles. Her works depict the often humorous, cheeky and tense dynamics that often define small communities.

Conversely, it is Georg’s comparative distance from rural landscapes that informs her work. Living in London but having visited Cornwall frequently as a child encourages her to draw on research and memories of this area rather than the day-to-day reality of existing in it. She paints a wild England, unoccupied by humans and existing somewhere between reality and fantasy. Her characters are inspired by Christina Rossetti’s poem, ‘Goblin Market,’ and it is through her reimagining of the goblins at the center of the poem that she attempts to frustrate the roles that women play in European fairy-tales and mythology. Instead of passive victims of a dangerous natural world, or nymph-like figures who find affinity with nature, Georg sets out to create adjacent alternatives who play a more active part in nature. Her goblins are closer to animal than human, competing against other wild- creatures for survival and who gorge on fruit and vegetables, rip apart the undergrowth, are clumsy, grumpy and resistant to traditional feminine narratives.

Like their literary counterparts, Nettle and Georg are modern chroniclers who simultaneously encourage a pleasure in the fantastic and a curiosity about the real. It is through uncovering the histories of these remote worlds that both artists use storytelling to look towards and say something about the future.