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Tate Britain Exhibition

Art Now Jesse Darling The Ballad of Saint Jerome

22 September 2018 – 24 February 2019
painting of a lion with human legs and arms, holding a stick

Jesse Darling Lion in wait for Saint Jerome and his medical kit, detail © Jesse Darling 2018

The artist explores identity through gender, sexuality, disability, love and companionship

Jesse Darling’s sculptures, drawings and objects reflect the vulnerability of the human body and express the desire to resist the constraints imposed on our lives by social and political forces. The new works presented in The Ballad of Saint Jerome, revisit the story of Saint Jerome and the lion. Jerome was a fourth-century Christian scholar best known for having translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin.

According to popular legend, Jerome was confronted by a ferocious lion. Instead of reacting in fear, he recognised that the animal was injured and removed a thorn from its paw. Now tamed, the lion became his lifelong companion. The story was a familiar subject for artists in the Renaissance period, with the lion representing the taming of wild nature and Jerome representing knowledge and restraint. For Darling, the fable is about power as well as healing, raising questions about control, captivity and the subjugation of otherness.

In The Ballad of Saint Jerome, Darling populates the gallery with works made from everyday objects and materials. These take on the appearance of both wounded and liberated shapes. Contorted mobility canes become animated snakes. Cabinets of curiosity try to walk away on their bent legs, and disembodied hands hold aloft ladders intended for caged birds. Figures such as Icarus and Batman undergo a tragi-comic makeover, scrutinised from unexpected angles to reveal their frailty and the need for care and healing.

Creating sculptures from the cabinets that are used to exhibit artworks, Darling subverts the conventions of museum display. Their approach questions how we perceive objects, and how meaning and value are assigned through the authority of institutions.

Jesse Darling lives and works in Berlin and London.

Curated by Elsa Coustou and Zuzana Flaskova

Jesse Darling (b.1981) Lion in wait for Jerome and his medical kit, detail 2018 Paint pen on packing paper, gold leaf, parcel tape 730 x 1100 mm Courtesy Arcadia Missa © Jesse Darling 2018

Installation views: Art Now: Jesse Darling: The Ballad of Saint Jerome 2018 © Jesse Darling. Courtesy the artist and Arcadia Missa.

© Tate photography (Matt Greenwood)

BP Art Ex Featured School Torriano 4

Installation views: Art Now: Jesse Darling: The Ballad of Saint Jerome 2018 © Jesse Darling. Courtesy the artist and Arcadia Missa.

© Tate photography (Matt Greenwood)

Installation views: Art Now: Jesse Darling: The Ballad of Saint Jerome 2018 © Jesse Darling. Courtesy the artist and Arcadia Missa. Photo credit: Tate photography (Matt Greenwood)

Installation views: Art Now: Jesse Darling: The Ballad of Saint Jerome 2018 © Jesse Darling. Courtesy the artist and Arcadia Missa.

© Tate photography (Matt Greenwood)

Tate Britain

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London SW1P 4RG
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Dates

22 September 2018 – 24 February 2019

Supported by

The Art Now Supporters Circle

Alexandra and Guy Halamish

Tuplin Fine Art Ltd

Princess Alia Al-Senussi

Courtney Plummer

Charles Asprey

Hannah Barry

Emma and Fred Goltz

Tierney Horne

James Lindon

Hélène Nguyen-Ban

Catherine Petitgas

Carla Rapoport

Matthew Slotover and Emily King

Thomas Dane Gallery

Russell Tovey

And those who wish to remain anonymous

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