Randy Shull: I Have Never Worn A Watch

The exhibition, curated by Alejandra Topete Pastor, gathers works from the past year exploring tradition, materiality, and abstraction through the humble hammock.

Rooted in the cultural and domestic traditions of Yucatán, hammocks serve in Shull’s practice as both material and conceptual framework. Woven locally and traditionally used for rest, these objects are reimagined as canvases for painting, extending the artist’s research into alternative surfaces and the boundaries of the medium. Shull challenges conventional definitions of painting by creating canvases through poured paint within handwoven hammocks, redefining the pictorial plane.

In this exhibition, Shull experiments with the hammock’s shape, scale, display, and materials, allowing the works to shift between painting, object, and spatial presence. His recent pieces foreground collaboration and process, incorporating leftover threads from the artisans who weave the hammocks. Rather than discarding these remnants, Shull preserves and arranges them atop layers of acrylic.

Through this process, materials marked by labour and time become new visual structures, emphasising continuity, reuse, and material memory. “I Have Never Worn A Watch” invites viewers to reconsider the value of craft traditions and reflect on how time, making, and collaboration reshape contemporary artistic practice.