STILL POINT
New Works by Sheila Ghidini
date. August 23 thru September 23
opening: Saturday, August 23, from 3 to 5
PRESS RELEASE:
STILL POINT
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered, Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
T.S. Eliot
Four Quartets
Pastine Projects is pleased to present Sheila Ghidini's new series, "Still Point." The exhibition consists of new drawings and sculpture.
Ghidini’s work is deeply influenced by her fascination with structure and the geometry of architecture. Her early practice focused on disassembling and reconstructing common chairs, a process that allowed her to explore new perspectives—particularly the interplay of negative space and structural form.
In this new series, Ghidini builds on the principles of negative space that informed her earlier assemblages, while expanding her inquiry to include ideas of stasis and movement, control and chance. She also draws on the formal purity of elemental shapes—squares and circles—to create compositions that balance precision with unpredictability. These opposing forces generate a dynamic tension that Ghidini intentionally pursues, both as a mode of visual expression and as a reflection of the contradictions inherent in lived experience.
Still Point Series, detail
ARTIST STATEMENT
Still Point
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered, Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
T.S. Eliot
Four Quartets
Structure and the geometry of architecture have always been a focus (2010-2025) in my work. Through dismantling and rebuilding common chairs, I’ve examined different ways of seeing negative space and exploring structure. Along with this, I’ve been working with the play of real and imagined forms by combining drawn cast shadows and negative spaces in three-dimensional assemblages. This process grows out of years of observational representational drawing and a focus on examining the relationships of objects in space. “Things which are equal to the same thing are also equal to one another” is an example of one of my wall assemblages in which I’ve reconfigured a found wood chair and added drawn cast shadows and negative spaces on the wall.
My work has shifted from an external focus to a more internal one after a serious health issue affected my vision earlier this year. This new series of drawings focus more deeply on vision, perception, space and circularity as a structure. I have continued to explore the space around shapes and forms with an intent of integrating into a whole image multiple layers of time.
Over the years, a throughline within the work is an interest in establishing dialectics, conceptually and formally. In this new series I’ve continued with the principles of negative space and positive space, stasis and movement, control and chance, and the formal elemental shapes of squares and circles. These opposing notions and qualities create a tension within the work that I actively pursue as a means of expressive visual representation and as a reflection of lived experience.