Artist Esme Toler presented a talk inspired by the exhibition Today We Reboot the Planet by Adrián Villar Rojas and by her experience making sculpture and orthotics.
Esme Toler (b. 1989) is a sculptor and printmaker living and working in London. Her work, which centres on the exploration of subterranean landscapes, oceanic imagery and animal behaviour, is informed by an ongoing engagement with orthotics. The varying processes of orthotics provide her practice with a technical and visual framework. Toler’s use of materials often occurs on a pragmatic level, for instance, using tarmac to level a surface or sealing fabrics with silicon. However, her works are imbued with a sense of unease and displacement, they avoid conclusion and are purposefully fluid. This year she performed at the V&A as part of the Friday Late programme and was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries at Spike Island and the ICA.
