Gentle War is a curatorial project that highlights the artists’ methods. Wauters intricately crafts objects and collages derived from mythological symbolism and Segal appropriates functional materials from everyday life. Both artists are engaged in processes of isolating and studying the resonances of their forms in order to further explore significance for the contemporary context. Wauters is inspired by the carnival culture of her hometown and her works carry a disturbing quality, reflecting collective superstitions and otherworldly beliefs. Segal is interested in the absence of narrative for disposable materials that can function across a range of contexts, which he examines for the potential to weave associations and imbue meanings. His references include the makeshift camps of recent Thai street protests and domestic life.

The title of this exhibition, Gentle War, reflects the artists’ struggles to wrest new meanings from their objects: between Wauters use of culturally entrenched symbolism to Segal’s introduction of different ways of seeing and thinking about the overlooked or disregarded. Moreover, certain violence is hinted at: from physical mutation to the potent challenges to what we think we might already know.