iamb
Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, 2025
Co-curated by Ladina Clément and Theo Papandreopoulos.
​Including:
​Nicole Bachmann
Ladina Clément
Rosa Klerkx
Eldar Krainer
Théïa Maldoom
Gabriela Pelczarska
Mae Nicolaou
Theo Papandreopoulos
Rebecca Halliwell Sutton
​
Clack-CLACK, Clack-CLACK, Clack-CLACK.
Rattling tube carriages echo overhead. Scrawled graffiti and weathered concrete bollards
line the approach like hedgerows.
The to and fro of the city is felt in this little alcove.
The arteries of London have steered these objects together — objects that seek eternal voyages,
fleeting glimpses of the limelight. [1]
Their true havens lie beneath their creators’ beds or in dust-laden attics.
Yet here, these travelling objects hum, beat, and screech, adding to the city’s cacophony. [2]
A hammer twangs on sheet metal as it echoes through the bones — vibrating.
The articulation of the joint, repeatedly pounding.
The inarticulation of the voice, unable to find correct placement between the tongue,
the teeth, and the lips.
Murmuring. Cursing. Sweating. Gesticulating.
Performing to the roll call of the trumpet.
Curtains up and ready to go — these bodies are on show.
The term iamb, á¼´αμβος or iambos comes from the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody and has widely been used in English literature, from Shakespeare to Keats. The rhythm mimics the beat of a heart, with the words alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables—da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM.
The works featured in this exhibition dance inside and out of the parameters of the body, they traverse between internal desires and external effects – from the hand that writes, to the voice that speaks, to the heart that yearns, to city dwellers that leave a trace. This interdisciplinary exhibition brings together nine emerging artists whose works span sculpture, sound, performance and video; it is a celebration of mediums that crave more space and attention in an ever commercially minded art world. iamb hosts work by artists Nicole Bachmann, Rosa Klerkx and Théïa Maldoom who employ intuitive, improvisational and rhythmic approaches in their performances. Gabriela Pelczarska, Eldar Krainer and Mae Nicolaou’s sculptures draw from interactions with readymade urban objects. While Rebecca Halliwell Sutton, Theo Papandreopoulos and Ladina Clément create vessels of embodied sound, through the strike of a mallet on metal to the blow of a horn to whispers on the wind.
This exhibition is Ladina Clément and Theo Papandreopoulos’ debut collaboration as curators. It is a meeting point between their British and Greek identities and a friendship forged through the arts and London.
​
[1] “In a love affair, most seek an eternal homeland. Others, but very few, eternal voyaging.” Walter Benjamin, (2009) One-way Street and Other Writings, p.81, Penguin Books.
[2] 1950s American Beat Generation of poets.
