Margaret Ackland While the World Looks Away 8th July 2025 - 24th July 2025

Sharp Edges, Turbulent Times 2025, watercolour on paper, framed, 140cm x 80cm (framed size 156cm x 95cm)

This work emerged from a growing sense of psychological unease — the fragile, unpredictable state of things veiled in surface civility. The stacked crystal forms in Sharp Edges, Turbulent Times reference objects of refinement and tradition, but here they are rendered unstable, teetering on the edge of collapse. I’ve always been interested in glass as a metaphor — for its strength and fragility, its clarity and danger. It is both beautiful and brittle, and in this piece it becomes a stand-in for the social, political, and environmental structures we rely on, but which increasingly feel like they could shatter at any moment. The patterned backdrop is drawn from storm motifs — stylised clouds found in historical textiles and Eastern painting traditions — to create a sense of turbulence behind the poised still life. The dissonance between order and chaos is intentional: I want the work to hover between elegance and threat. In times of crisis, we often cling to ritual, to appearances of control. But beneath those rituals, there’s an undercurrent of anxiety. This piece reflects that duality — the sharp edge just beneath the surface, the moment just before something breaks.