ON THE VERGE / ON THE CUSP

Curators

Jacqueline Schwartz

Aurelia Cowan

Isabelle Enquist

Artists

Fan Bangyu

Han Gao

Yifan He

Tilda Lahiff

Anais Leung

Paula Parole

Charlotte Worthington

Eva Yates

This exhibition will be on display at PAUSE/FRAME (194 The Broadway SW19 1RY), located in the KOPPEL Broadway building in Wimbledon.

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On the Verge / On the Cusp asks what does it mean to be on the precipice of change? Is it about the potential for renewal, or the looming possibility of letdown? Showcasing eight London-based emerging artists, the exhibition explores transformative moments of flux informed by fem and non-binary experiences.

As we stay “On the verge”, we near the brink of collapse. There is fear in motion, a breath is caught and held, and the breaking point makes itself known. In contrast, “on the cusp” signals the hopeful promise of the uncertain, the fragile passage towards clarity. Drawing inspiration from personal experiences of uncertainty —whether facing emotional crossroads, moments of catharsis, or navigating life transitions—this exhibition explores the generative potential between belonging and un-belonging, creation and doubt, and the personal and external structures that shape transformation. Bringing together painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, the artists respond to concepts of change and uncertainty in regards to gender expression, youth culture, intergenerational communication, and the interior shifts of the human psyche.

In new paintings and mixed media works, Eva Yates (b.1996, London, UK) and Paula Parole (b. 1992, Saarbrücken, Germany) consider the transformational complexity of adolescence, navigating oscillating emotions and self-understanding within trying environments. Yates’ Hell is a Teenage Girl offers an honest look at mental health, and Parole’s painting draws upon girlhood and the female companionship that shielded her through her male-dominated Catholic education. These difficult years of fear and abundance are captured through Yates’ fervid brushwork, and the iconographic kitsch of Parole’s incense, feathers and rhinestones.

Through wood sculptures, tapestries, and silk dreamscapes, artists Anais Leung (b. 2002) and Charlotte Worthington (b. Brighton, UK) hold a collective discussion surrounding memory and the body. Their works take an inward look towards the narratives, rituals, and experiences of the domestic and the maternal, using fragments to reconstruct the emotions and conditions surrounding cycles of change.

In sculptural works by Yifan He (b.1998, Qingdao, China) and Fan Bangyu, the body is a site of change and a cathartic realisation of gender expression and fluidity. He’s kinetic sculpture, rendered in abject, plastic realism, positions the artist’s own body on the intersection of gender queerness and diasporic queerness: a body on-the-move, immigrating, transitioning. Likewise, Bangyu’s deconstructed and reanimated musical objects narrate queer self-understanding, daring to exist beyond binary codes whilst exploding their prior material value to critique systems of governance.

For multidisciplinary artist Han Gao (b. 1998, Huna, China) and painter Tilda Lahiff (b. 2000, London, UK), transformation exists on the molecular level, recognizable only in the small shifts of one’s internal experience. Gao’s durational performance disrupts the traditional stasis of the object-centred exhibition by progressively weaving a web of red string, literally piecing together disparate moments, memories, and mediums of transformation in physical space. Painting in oil paint on aerated gesso, Lahiff focuses into her digital snapshots of the mundane or the joyful. Porous and intense, her smiles become grimaces, the disquieting authenticity of the human experience simmering beneath, waiting for the surface.

On the Verge / On the Cusp invites viewers to reflect on their own thresholds and turning points. Here, we celebrate the cyclical nature of growth and the intense periods of reconfiguration that often define our lives.

What do we gain—and what do we lose— by processing these states of metamorphosis?