Sam Porritt presented solo exhibition Grist to the Mill at London’s VITRINE gallery, which ran from September 30 to November 12, 2016.
The Zürich-based artist’s kinetic installation, viewable at the Bermondsey Square window, combines sculpture and drawing using aluminium, motor, bearings, paint and pigment ink to explore ideas of growth and progress in a climate of economic uncertainty. A series of large interconnected cogs featuring Porritt’s signature faces — expressive and immediately drawn, endlessly turning towards each other — the work touches on the equally connected ideas of development in relation to people and their society.
![Sam Porritt, Grist To The Mill (2016). Installation view. Photo by Jonathan Bassett. Image Courtesy of VITRINE, London.](https://www.aqnb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/04-_Sam-Porritt-Grist-To-The-Mill-2016.-Photograph-by-Jonathan-Bassett.-Image-Courtesy-of-VITRINE.jpg)
An essay published in a book of Porritt’s drawings quotes Joanna Fiduccia‘s ‘The Swift Face’:
“The face is swift on two accounts: quick to announce itself in the world, and quick to change its aspect. Expressions flash up, flicker across, crash over the surface of the face like a wave.”**