Catch and Release

It is a two-piece commission for LCB Depot, Leicester. The term of the title refers to the archaeological practice of documenting then reburying artefacts rather than excavating them fully. It is a low-impact process, one of temporary exposure.

In Catch and Release, Fitz’s signature considerations of material and process, and of form and place, are all evident. The work addresses transference and temporality, echoing the comings and goings of the former transport depot. The sculptures hover in form between display and storage, appearing as trolleys halted in mid-dispatch, temporarily manoeuvred into place, possibly abandoned. Within this friction of movement and stasis, there is a sense of waiting.

The artist’s industrial vernacular of raw materials is evident in the soft palate of hewn plaster, OSB wood, welded steel and rusted profiles. Each sculpture is composed of a metal frame that is neither open nor closed, the line of which draws a geometric box round a central object. One of the objects appears seconded from elsewhere, tied in for safety with packing foam and ratchet straps. The other appears made within its frame, ready for transportation. Both assemblages are composed of the attached and detached, the re-moved and re-placed. Through this language of construction, Fitz places the challenges and limitations of both making and exhibition directly into the work. Process, methods of display, dispatch and storage become both form and subject.

Fitz’s physical relationship to materials is visible in the rough surfaces and lines of the tooling and molding. Spills of red and white skimming plaster - the debris of the act of turning – are also displayed. It is as if the making has been interrupted. By blurring this distinction between making and exhibition, the artist melds both studio and gallery, furthering a dialogue with process. Through this conceptual approach, the artist explores temporal and material encounters. Anticipated reanimation haunts the work.

The artist is known for a very physical approach to making, exploring the limits of materials and processes - exhausting them through action, repetition and transformation. Taxonomies, series and continua infuse her practice. In another process alluded to by the title, many of the materials used in Catch and Release are recycled from previous work and the industrial spaces surrounding the artist’s studio. At the end of this show, this work will be broken down into its constituent materials, ready for storage and future use. By redeploying materials back into the process of making, Fitz ultimately addresses the concerns of the work itself. Catch and Release is a translation - from idea to material and back again, from process to form and back again. It is an interim construction, to be eventually stored only in memory and documentation. By depositing the work within the gallery for its lifespan, the artist has bonded it to a moment. It is a temporary exposure.

Sarah Tutt, 2021