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Marina and Ulay Abramović, Charles and Ray Eames, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera – art history is practically crowded with creative duos who fell in love. One such pair, Annie Morris and Idris Khan, step out together at a new exhibition, Two Worlds Entwined, set against the backdrop of the intimate Newlands House Gallery in Petworth.
Spanning multiple floors and rooms, the exhibition delves into the practices of both artists side by side: Morris fills the space with her signature stacked sculptures, eclectic tapestries, spontaneous wall drawings and two new upholstered armchairs, while Khan exhibits a cross-section of works from his career that mesh themes of time, repetition and layering. Whether due to conversations over shared meals, or the fact that their studios are adjacent to one another, it’s clear that the artists inspire each other.
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Two Worlds Entwined begins with Morris and Khan’s works in separate rooms, allowing for an appreciation of the difference in energy between the artists’ individual works, before they are later united. This configuration captures the harmony between their lives, while also revealing points of conflict in their artistic relationship. But even when placed together, one artist does not overshadow the other; these two bodies of work, just like the two artists who created them, coexist in harmony.
In Khan’s room, a portrait of Morris, gifted to her in celebration of their engagement, hangs on the wall. Commemorating their time shared together up until the moment of its creation, the artwork was created by superimposing 160 photographs. ‘You can’t quite see her, but you can make out this ghostly figure,’ he says. ‘It’s a beautiful way to start the show, by thinking about Annie.’ Elsewhere, his fascination with repetition and time is evident in his stamp works. Handmade by Khan, with the weight of his wrist captured in each impression, the recurrence of words and phrases is akin to a chant. The mindlessness proved therapeutic for the artist during a particularly dark time in the couple’s lives.
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‘This series started at a time when Idris was grieving the loss of his mother and both of us mourning the stillbirth of our first child,’ Morris explains. ‘Idris would hide away in his studio, using deep blue ink to stamp away. Artists are lucky to have something to turn to in tough times, and sometimes being in that dark place is the best time to create.’
Morris too turned to her practice for therapeutic relief during this traumatic time. As Khan recounts, ‘I would go into her studio, and she would have these huge pieces of paper on which, in her sadness, she would scribble away with just a biro.’ Losing herself in these pen marks, Morris found herself returning to egg-shaped drawings, ultimately using them to create her Stack sculpture series. Fashioned first from plaster and sand, which creates an impression of shell-like fragility, and then cast in bronze, spheres painted with hand-sourced raw pigments in vivid hues are assembled on top of one another, faintly recalling the swell of a pregnant belly while instilling a sense of precariousness – a balancing act of creativity and grief.
‘Most of my work starts with drawing,’ Morris explains. ‘I start my days in my studio by spontaneously sketching.’ With an affinity for sculpture and drawing, a turn to tapestry work, which falls at an intersection between the two, seemed only natural. Stitching her frantic sketches onto swathes of fabrics, her animated wall hangings preserve the restlessness and immediacy of her drawings. Elsewhere, they spill onto a pair of upholstered armchairs, custom-created to complement the exhibition’s homely setting.
Newlands House Gallery feels different – more intimate – than most other city galleries. The charming Georgian building in Petworth is not far from Morris and Kahn’s home, where they spent the pandemic. Turning to the Sussex countryside for inspiration during lockdown, they each chose the theme of the four seasons as their focus, Khan creating many-hued watercolours inspired by the rural surroundings, and Morris four monochromatic sculptures.
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Despite Four Seasons being the couple’s only artistic collaboration to date, it is just one example of the pair’s artistic synthesis. In rooms at the top of winding staircases and off narrow hallways are displayed some of their most renowned works, each created independently with differing aesthetics but coexisting harmoniously alongside one another. Two World Entwined is a love letter to Morris and Khan’s art practices, their Sussex countryside home and, of course, the life they have created with one another.
Annie Morris and Idris Khan’s home in the Dordogne was featured in the June 2021 issue of The World of Interiors. Read the full feature.
Until 7 May. Newlands House Gallery, Pound Street, Petworth, West Sussex, GU28 0DX. Details: newlandshouse.gallery
