"The act of reaching for a lighter or a spoon is familiar routine, yet we hardly know what really goes on between hand and metal."
Walter Benjamin
Palmer Gallery is delighted to present Between Hands and Metal, the gallery’s fourth exhibition. Bringing together the work of Alia Hamaoui, Amba Sayal Bennett and Raheel Khan - taking a line from Walter Benjamin as its starting point - Between Hands and Metal explores the theoretical notion of 'contact' as a push and pull between estrangement and connection. The exhibition offers a reflective inquiry into the multifaceted nature of contact, recognising both its destructive legacies as a form of violence, as well as its potential for embodied resistance. By engaging with specific layered spatial contexts, the exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the enduring impact of pivotal moments of encounter, considering how they continue to shape historical narratives.
Through their diverse artistic practices, the artists in Between Hands and Metal highlight how modes of contact - both historical and contemporary - shape our understanding of cultural ownership, exchange, and progress. By reflecting on these varied dimensions, the artists pose important questions about the enduring impact of contact on our shared histories and the ongoing dialogues around colonialism and identity, urging us to confront the legacies of our interconnected past.
"The collection of works brought together in this exhibition unravel the myriad ways in which the colonial past is experienced, contained, preserved and transmitted,showing how the diasporic subject is making new futures for itself. Through these works, this diasporic subject is insurgent, refusing the categories placed on it and instead finding new ways, expansive, mysterious, subconscious ways, to articulate its own histories and imagine its own futures."
