Where the Light Won’t Reach 

Where the Light Won’t Reach is a solo exhibition of works by interdisciplinary artist Lulu MacDonald. It tells a tale of growing in darkness, beyond the reach of sight, on thresholds of control and visibility. The wellspring for the exhibition was the Rhubarb Triangle, an area in West Yorkshire where rhubarb is grown in absolute darkness and later harvested by candlelight. 

Lulu MacDonald 

The work of Lulu MacDonald (b. 1991, United Kingdom) is holistic and suffused with fantasy. Her works are multidisciplinary, immersive installations that have been described as “jewelry for architecture.” The artist’s sculptures give the impression of emerging from architectural structures, breaking through the soil’s surface, and disrupting order, in the process changing the way we perceive our surroundings. 

MacDonald works with space contextually, connecting narrative to contemporaneous scientific discoveries. In her artistic practice, she uses the mediums of metal, glass, and ceramics (sculptures, installations), textile (clothing design), and graphics, introducing the art world to a novel way of thinking about stained glass that transcends the frame of a glass image. 

Rhubarb out of Darkness 

Glass gates in the form of rhubarb and metal cylinders are suspended from the ceiling, with clothes hanging from the cylinders. The entire exhibition is illuminated by warm, pinkish-purple light. Somewhere close by, LED face care masks glow, emitting light synchronized with the phases of the moon. The entire space of SIC! BWA Wrocław gallery is permeated by a composition written by the artist and her brother, a sonic twine of folk song, protest anthem, and lullaby. 

The peculiar technique for cultivating rhubarb in Yorkshire functions in Lulu MacDonald’s project as a metaphor for work undertaken in “dark” times: precarious, invisible, and yet tenacious. The artist poses the questions of whether darkness, instead of arousing fear, can provide a cover for activity, growth, and survival. 

In the space of SIC! BWA Wrocław gallery, the motif of darkness melds into a landscape evoking the sensibility of the artist, whose glass works often appear to grow from architecture or emerge from realms beyond the reach of light. Lulu MacDonald’s distinctive organic forms evoke associations with Art Nouveau’s lightsome qualities intertwined with the weighted medium of metal. In the exhibition space, one beholds material manifestations channeling an interest in ecology and migration—structures that connote both movement and tension, as if carrying within them the memory of processes of growth, erosion, and ceaseless adaptation to changing conditions. 

Growth in Darkness 

Where the Light Won’t Reach tells a tale of endeavors undertaken beyond the light of day, about growth occurring under difficult conditions, and about the coexistence of humans, plants, and technology in an environment that is simultaneously oppressive and nurturing. Here, growth is unnatural and labor is largely unseen. Yet in darkness, something ceaselessly germinates:slowly, imperfectly, but undeniably. The exhibition shows that even in darkness, processes that allow us to endure, adapt, and gradually develop are possible—the tenebrous unseen nonetheless expanding.