Annie Morris and Idris Khan A Petal Silently Falls

In their personal lives, Morris and Khan are irreplaceable partners, living together in the United Kingdom with their two children. This exhibition shows the resonance generated by the work of two artists with the utmost respect for each other. That being said, this harmony woven by their works is hard to grasp from the surface—it is intangible, buried deep within. 

Morris is an artist who relentlessly explores of color and form. Her sculptures are visually striking, with compositions that marry bold colors and shapes. She produces hundreds of sketches every day, and this daily repetition of improvised lines results not only in the drawings themselves but also in tapestry works created with fabric and embroidery thread. 

Khan’s works also embody a multimedia nature. What they all have in common is a tranquil, contemplative feel that initially seems diametrically opposed to Morris’ works. The extraordinarily meticulous composition of his photographs, paintings, and sculptures point to a remarkable degree of refinement. His art explores a wide range of cultural references, going beyond fine art and into fields such as music, literature, and religion. 

In this way, Morris and Khan draw upon substantially different sources of inspiration. Accordingly, their artistic pursuits could not be more distinct. Nevertheless, there remains a clear conceptual commonality between their practices. And there is a shared history that connects their works. 

Morris completed her graduate studies in her hometown of London, at the Slade School of Fine Art, but prior to that, she studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Giuseppe Penone, a leading member of Italy’s Arte Povera movement. Her Stack series evokes interesting parallels with Penone’s approach, characterized as it was by the bold use of natural materials. The series consists of sculptural works where irregular spheres are stacked atop one another, drawing from a deeply tragic experience that the artist had.  

Morris lost her first child to stillbirth in 2011. Naturally, this event is part of the narrative shared with Khan. While confronting her grief, Morris drew countless sketches reminiscent of eggs and pregnant bellies, and the sculptures of the Stack series originate from these drawings. They derive, then, from catastrophic emotions, and come into existence in a precarious equilibrium. According to Morris, however, the works have gradually transformed into an affirmation of life, in all its unpredictability and fragility. And now, the series has become symbolic as an act of remembrance for those who have been lost.  

The son of a Muslim, Pakistani father and a Welsh mother who had been raised ​​​​Christian, Khan grew up in an extremely multicultural environment. He studied photography at the University of Derby, and earned his master’s degree from the Royal College of Art. Khan’s After series is created through a unique reinterpretation of masterpieces from art history, placing particular emphasis on color. The centerpiece for this exhibition is After the Reflection（2025）, which is a treatment of Claude Monet’s The Water Lilies: Green Reflections, housed in the Musée de l’Orangerie. Painted by Monet in his later years, The Water Lilies series is celebrated as a masterpiece, depicting  flowers and leaves emerging from the deep blue-green surface of the water. 

The After series probes the mechanisms that govern the generation of human perception and memory over time. By meticulously analyzing the colors that comprise Monet’s work, and repeatedly deconstructing and reconstructing them through layered superimpositions, the series urges us to reconsider the mental processes involved in recognizing and recalling paintings. As this series might suggest, “repetition” and “layering” are key concepts underlying Khan’s art. Another crucial concept would be “time.” In the After series, the passing of time when viewing art is subjected to analysis through deconstruction and reconstruction. 

The idea of repetition and layering across time is a running theme in Khan’s practice, and yet subtle（but nevertheless significant）shifts emerge when one compares this exhibition’s After the Reflection to the artist’s earlier works. Toward the beginning of his career, the focus was more on layering existing images to create new visual images. These new images were not merely the sums of their parts, but took on certain universal forms. Meanwhile, After the Reflection sees the transformation of an existing image into musical notation, symbols that call on our sense of hearing. The score formed by these musical notes has been deliberately chosen to resonate with Khan’s emotional responses. Khan’s style has undergone a transition, while maintaining what was at its core. 

Although not exhibited here, Khan’s three-dimensional work Overture（2015）involved the application of a unique “chant-like process” born out of needing to bear the accumulated, serial grief of losing his child and his mother at around the same time. As mentioned above, Morris’ Stack series was also based on her experience of loss. Their works deeply resonate with one another precisely because each artist sublimated their painful experiences into art in their own way. 

Furthermore, Morris and Khan have also collaborated on several works. While these collaborations reveal the connections between their artistic concerns, more fundamental resonances come to the fore when one thoroughly observes their own respective works. Accordingly, we encourage you to take the time to fully appreciate both of their works at this exhibition. Accordingly, we encourage you to take the time to thoroughly appreciate both artists’ works at this exhibition and experience the profound synergy achieved by art. 

Hiroki Yamamoto 

（Cultural Studies Researcher, and Associate Professor at Jissen Women’s University）