Julian Watts, Growth, 2022

Coming upon Julian’s bleached work kickstarts a journey of shifting emotional responses, pulling us between layers of attraction and disquiet. The first impact comes from the enticing sense of puzzling materiality of the foraged wood- from afar it masquerades as marble. Intrigue develops into delight at encountering the lightest touch of the biomorphic grotesque, amplified by his growing use of warm pink “blushing moments”. We are left with the seductive tactility of his almost slippery sanded smooth surfaces; until another detail of the work takes us by surprise and the journey begins again. This work is by turns beautiful, serene, silly and unsettling, it is a playfully organic corruption of the descent into the uncanny valley