Working from his personal collection of images, publications and ephemera, Louis Blue Newby’s practice is primarily concerned with notions of archiving, memory, and desire. Through the processes of print-making, collage, sculpture and drawing, he attempts to destabilise the clinical and sanitary mechanisms of traditional archiving. In its place, Newby’s work supposes a queered archival language, one that opts instead for messy and uncontained modes of longing. Often framing his work within the language of public space, objects such as cork boards and noticeboards become conduits for a desire to consume and be consumed publicly.
Deep Inside (Public Facing), a new commissioned work by Newby inhabits a pre-existing lightbox outside Soft Opening’s London gallery. The work subtly transforms the object through the application of worn stickers, prints within the interior and a screen-printed design applied directly onto the acrylic face in Crisco vegetable fat.
Historically used as lubricant within gay sexual subcultures, in this work, the Crisco creates a lens or portal to view the interior mechanics of the lightbox. Deep Inside (Public Facing) becomes a stand-in for the human body, eased open and exposing its deepest insides.