Patterns are a system of forms, rhythms, and refrains. Ax·is Mun·di – which translates as ‘centre of the earth’ – explores how pattern, observed and anticipated, can become a method of worlding: an ongoing, iterative act. Kambo’s development of this ensemble of practices was afforded through the expertise of BALTIC’s technical, curatorial, and production teams, emerging during her residency in the fourth-floor studio. Far from proposing any distance between the artist and the institution, Ax·is Mun·di rules out any idea of a barrier between this world and the next.
The gallery feels like a permeable space, gently orientating the viewer. Many artworks are positioned in choice corners or set flush against warm, terracotta-colored walls. This intentional layout functions as a navigational tool, much like a compass rose in the corner of a map. Kambo’s symbols, carefully placed, act as subtle directional points. A bespoke, rounded bench marks the center-point of the gallery. It acts as a giant punctum surrounded by three long banners which, significantly, leave gaps large enough for the viewer to observe other elements of the exhibition, as well as the activity of the other visitors moving around them. These banners, appliqued with radial arcs, golden sunrays and broken center lines, map converging directions of travel. The anchoring and orientation of the space around this central point is only emphasized by the presence of a giant pendulum overhead.
As a disabled person, I am glad to see a rest-space installed as the focal point of an exhibition. Curatorial models are so often predicated on a way of seeing that is designed to engage autonomous, ‘normative’ bodies – the upright and standing – in ways that privilege verticality and movement over rest and pause.
Rest spaces also allow for the slowing of time that makes more of the moment, as opposed to the journey. Visitors can take a small wooden talisman, shaped like an outstretched hand, from a circular well in the center of the bench. This makes the bench a gathering spot for visitors, fostering potential mutual encounters but also deep contemplation of the space. Turning this tiny hand over absent-mindedly in my fingers and later, retrieving it from deep in the pocket of a winter coat, I find myself thinking of it as an emblem signifying generosity; its intention, perhaps, to remind us to stop, to dwell a while.
Ax·is Mun·di graphically demonstrates the ephemeral nature of private rituals and repeated practices – practices designed to spiritually center oneself, calling upon feelings of certainty and control. Themes of meditation and handcraft are also manifest in the presence of knotted, plaited and braided textiles; the presence of which stops Kambo’s use of symbolism appearing too repetitive or mechanical in its outlook, given its emphasis on pattern. As such, this collection of interwoven and symmetrical knots can also be read for their dexterity: offering connection, strength and security between a number of opposing threads. This concept is expanded through a long plait suspended from the rafters, gently coiling around an irregularly shaped pebble positioned on the gallery floor.
The pebble is engraved with one of Kambo’s totemic designs, an eye, which exposes a surprisingly bright, white pigment beneath the stone’s outer surface. The act of etching into a hard surface underscores the idea that pattern is also a form of inscription. These pebbles have been chosen and drawn from local sources. Drawing, removed from the application of a distinct medium, is instead defined through the ways in which something is taken – drawn – from one place and commemorated in another. This gesture mirrors Kambo’s invitation to viewers to take the wooden hands from the gallery, emulating a similar exchange.
This tendency towards pattern does not so much record feeling as demonstrate action; a precarious sense-making constituted through arrangement. A grouping of engraved wooden panels, reminiscent of tarot cards, are propped up against a floating shelf. Their arrangement conjures the dexterous ritual of shuffling and drawing from a deck; an act that evokes grounding and connection. When held in sequence, this deck outlines the pattern of past behaviors with an orientation towards the future. This lexicon of symbols, such as the labyrinth and the keyhole, makes the case for the signifying power of non-figural icons, typically dismissed as mere decoration. Kambo’s sign system has, in fact, proven to be highly adaptable to a wide variety of shifting contexts, many of which might be considered ‘applied art’: for example, producing block-printed wallpaper installed as part of a commission at Harewood House, and more recently, the design for the flag hoisted atop Newcastle Castle.
Historically, artists have aligned the decorative with the cartographic: the sequencing of pattern has served as a tool for spiritual orientation, imaginative projection, and the affirmation of connections between earth, surface, and body. Mani Kambo’s work demonstrates how the power and charm of symbols extends far beyond their instrumental purposes as talismans, offering safe passage through an uncertain world. Indeed, part of the charm of the gallery is in its comfort. While Kambo’s iconographies are aesthetically pleasing and demonstrate a deft handling of materials, the world it presents is altogether too universal, lacking in a distinct message. Yet – to its credit – it is confidently pared back, opting to stay with this ambiguity. Ax·is Mun·di is perhaps best described through its contingent practices of collecting, patterning and weaving, all physical manifestations of a presiding impulse – to pause, thereby making space and time our own.
Rachel Boyd is a PhD researcher based at Northumbria University.
Mani Kambo: Ax·is Mun·di at Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art runs until 15 June 2025.
This review is supported by Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art.
Published 28.04.2025 by Lesley Guy in Reviews
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