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Solo Exhibition Opens at Martin Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen. An Unwatched Voice, 23 August – 27th September 2025

The artist’s abundant flower arrangements, set against a dark background, exudes melancholia and are reminiscent of the seventeenth century memento mori, intended as a reminder of the inevitability of death, a popular artistic and symbolic trope of that time. The art historical framework of the genre is important to Woods as she herself deploys the still life format to contemplate on the fragile threshold between life and death, portraying the world through seemingly banal details steeped in anxious anticipation.

Central to the work is also Woods’ fascination with the “in-between”, and these new works seem to oscillate between the extremes of life and death, the abstract and the figurative, inside and outside – as well as the seen and unseen. A reference to the latter is also found in the title of the exhibition, in which unwatched does not refer to simply averting one’s gaze, but rather to the act of un-doing the watching.

The unwatched thereby also refers to the paradoxical relationship between the seen and the unseen, as seeing inevitably lurks behind unseeing, creating a sense of disorientation and perceptual transience, while also raising the question: Can you really unsee and forget, or is an image simply obscured? After all, aren’t we the ones to choose what is going to be seen or unseen in our own world? These new works by Woods present what might otherwise be overlooked, forgotten or ignored, and highlight that the difference between perception and reality is not easily comprehended. 

The tightly cropped composition not only obscures what might otherwise be a familiar subject, but draws attention to what is not seen, and how the image might continue beyond the parameters of the painting itself, creating a sense of unease about what is unseen or perhaps deliberately hidden.

Such as her depiction of elaborate stained-glass structures, painted in deep jewel tones, that become a metaphor not only for the thin veneer between life and death, but also between the seen and the perceived. Artists have throughout history taken an interest in this relationship, and the window, with its mediating role between inside and out, has been used to help make sense of the world and what we see – and of the threshold between the two.

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Solo Exhibition Opens at Martin Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen. An Unwatched Voice, 23 August – 27th September 2025

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The artist’s abundant flower arrangements, set against a dark background, exudes melancholia and are reminiscent of the seventeenth century memento mori, intended as a reminder of the inevitability of death, a popular artistic and symbolic trope of that time. The art historical framework of the genre is important to Woods as she herself deploys the still life format to contemplate on the fragile threshold between life and death, portraying the world through seemingly banal details steeped in anxious anticipation.

Central to the work is also Woods’ fascination with the “in-between”, and these new works seem to oscillate between the extremes of life and death, the abstract and the figurative, inside and outside – as well as the seen and unseen. A reference to the latter is also found in the title of the exhibition, in which unwatched does not refer to simply averting one’s gaze, but rather to the act of un-doing the watching.

The unwatched thereby also refers to the paradoxical relationship between the seen and the unseen, as seeing inevitably lurks behind unseeing, creating a sense of disorientation and perceptual transience, while also raising the question: Can you really unsee and forget, or is an image simply obscured? After all, aren’t we the ones to choose what is going to be seen or unseen in our own world? These new works by Woods present what might otherwise be overlooked, forgotten or ignored, and highlight that the difference between perception and reality is not easily comprehended. 

The tightly cropped composition not only obscures what might otherwise be a familiar subject, but draws attention to what is not seen, and how the image might continue beyond the parameters of the painting itself, creating a sense of unease about what is unseen or perhaps deliberately hidden.

Such as her depiction of elaborate stained-glass structures, painted in deep jewel tones, that become a metaphor not only for the thin veneer between life and death, but also between the seen and the perceived. Artists have throughout history taken an interest in this relationship, and the window, with its mediating role between inside and out, has been used to help make sense of the world and what we see – and of the threshold between the two.

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