An exhibition of new and existing work by London-based, Irish artist Eva Rothschild, whose work in both sculpture and film grows out of a commitment to sculpture’s capacity to create bodily encounters in space. Rothschild is developing new work and reconfiguring existing work for Fruitmarket’s exhibition galleries, thinking through how the space and light work in the rooms, and how we as viewers encounter and negotiate them. With some major new sculptures and some of the smaller, sculpted details of everyday life (ceramic cans, bottles, boxes) that Rothschild says she ‘makes anyway’, the exhibition will offer viewers the chance to understand anew the world and how we find space for ourselves within it.

In the warehouse, the viewer will be enticed into a world entirely of the artist’s making. Sculptures we can sit on and play with create an environment in which to watch first Boys and Sculpture, a film made for the Whitechapel Gallery in 2012 which shows what happens when young boys are let loose in an art gallery, and a new film, premiering in this exhibition. This film is set in Parsoles Memphis, a playground Rothschild made in 2022 to explore how sculpture might be ‘activated through the body, through movement, irreverence, imagination and joy’. Working together with a choreographer and a group of older boys, this new film takes a look at how young men hang out individually and together, attempting to occupy space often designed specifically to exclude them.