Archie Fooks - Smith
Absolute Reality Relative

The artworks selected for this show range from three years of the artist’s practice. They include themes of the esoteric and mystical, with references to psychedelic drugs, spiritualism and frameworks of magick.

read more

Emanuel von Baeyer Gallery presents Absolute Reality Relative, a comprehensive exhibition of  works by Archie Fooks - Smith. Known for his distinctive style and technical prowess, Fooks - Smith brings a compelling fusion of traditional skill and contemporary sensibilities to this latest series, where each artwork serves as an inquiry into the nuanced boundaries between perception and reality.

The title, Absolute Reality Relative, references a philosophical duality drawn from Buddhist thought, distinguishing between “Absolute Reality”—the objective nature of oneness in all existence beyond individual perception—and “Relative Reality,” shaped by personal experiences and context. This duality is woven through the exhibition, as Fooks - Smith uses visual form to explore consciousness’s role in mediating these two realities. The coloured fabrics that backdrop many of the sleeping portrait drawings represent the notion in Vajrayana Buddhism of specific metaphoric colours that correspond to the beginning of perceptual phenomena, which are initiated by a mind’s unconscious becoming in the timeless realm that precedes Samsara and underlies Nirvana. The stage below formless awareness, in which sensory representation actualises, so that the mind experiencing phenomenological representation may come to first comprehend itself, and then later the Sunyata (emptiness) that it is relationally built on in its connection to the aforementioned “Absolute Reality”. This conceptual dynamic is depicted in different ways across the selection of works; through a text-based meditation in the artwork Absolute Relativity, as well as a narrative style depiction in Qualia Deconstructed which delves into the concept of interface consciousness, echoing cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman’s theories of perception. In this piece, Fooks - Smith presents a re-imagined visual landscape as experienced by four individuals in an interconnected multiverse, challenging the viewer to consider the nature of shared subjective visual experience, amongst beings both conscious and unconscious.

All of the pieces in the show demonstrates an acute sensitivity to detail, yet the artist exercises a careful balance: some works are rendered with understated simplicity, while others reach a level of intense, horror vacui-esc detail. This dual approach is more than aesthetic; it reflects the artist’s belief that each concept demands its own unique articulation. By allowing a spectrum from minimalism to meticulous detail, Fooks - Smith highlights a range and restraint that not only reflect his thematic decisions, but also set him apart within the contemporary art world.

By embracing both the historical importance of drawing and cross-cultural philosophic influences, Fooks-Smith affirms a commitment to exceptional craftsmanship and depth. His works invite viewers to navigate complex layers of meaning and visual language, where subtle references and conceptual gestures contribute to a larger philosophical inquiry. Absolute Reality Relative encourages audiences to question the boundaries of perception, drawing them into an immersive experience that bridges the tangible and the abstract.

Archie Fooks-Smith (b.1995, Bury St Edmunds) lives and works in London. He is a contemporary artist specialising in drawing and conceptual art. He produces sculptural 3D pencil works which are highly intricate and often feature hand-sewn embroidery. His artworks reference and bond themes of mysticism, theories of consciousness, psychedelic experiences and the philosophical notion of subjective qualia.