Raine Storey Canadian, b. 1995
Hang Tight, 2025
Dorset limestone
30 x 30 x 35 cm
Raine Storey is recognised for her expressive, texturally rich paintings that intertwine realism and abstraction. In these works, the artist incorporates fragments of historical debris - including stone remnants salvaged...
Raine Storey is recognised for her expressive, texturally rich paintings that intertwine realism and abstraction. In these works, the artist incorporates fragments of historical debris - including stone remnants salvaged from the restoration of London’s Houses of Parliament - embedding material traces of the past directly into her canvases. This practice reflects her interest in the resilience of materials and the layered narratives they carry, as well as her broader exploration of how history, memory, and contemporary experience intersect. This deep engagement with material and time made sculpture a natural next step in her evolving practice. By moving into three dimensions, Storey extends her dialogue between presence and absence, surface and depth, allowing these concerns to take on a tactile, physical form.
‘Hang Tight’ (2025) marks a significant milestone within this context: Storey’s first fully realised three-dimensional stone sculpture - began over a year ago - evokes the softness and fluidity of draped fabric. At one moment it appears as a weightless fold, at another, it returns to its raw, geological state - creating a unique contrast of texture and form while remaining anchored in a single, ancient medium. “The fabric weaves restfully around the stone and then blends into the rock's natural texture,” Storey reflects, noting her enduring relationship with fabric, a motif that has threaded through her early drawings, paintings, and printmaking on cloth.
The sculpture’s surface reveals delicate stress fractures. These natural fissures, while posing technical challenges during the carving process, amplify the work’s quiet narrative - speaking to the fragile tensions within seemingly solid structures. This push and pull between resilience and vulnerability mirrors Storey’s broader concerns: the passage of time, the traces we leave behind, and the fluidity of forms that refuse to settle.In this sculpture, stone becomes supple, static weight gives way to visual motion, and the enduring material is made to speak softly.
‘Hang Tight’ (2025) marks a significant milestone within this context: Storey’s first fully realised three-dimensional stone sculpture - began over a year ago - evokes the softness and fluidity of draped fabric. At one moment it appears as a weightless fold, at another, it returns to its raw, geological state - creating a unique contrast of texture and form while remaining anchored in a single, ancient medium. “The fabric weaves restfully around the stone and then blends into the rock's natural texture,” Storey reflects, noting her enduring relationship with fabric, a motif that has threaded through her early drawings, paintings, and printmaking on cloth.
The sculpture’s surface reveals delicate stress fractures. These natural fissures, while posing technical challenges during the carving process, amplify the work’s quiet narrative - speaking to the fragile tensions within seemingly solid structures. This push and pull between resilience and vulnerability mirrors Storey’s broader concerns: the passage of time, the traces we leave behind, and the fluidity of forms that refuse to settle.In this sculpture, stone becomes supple, static weight gives way to visual motion, and the enduring material is made to speak softly.