Christopher Kelly: Evisceration — Unravelling the Inner Terrain
Christopher Kelly’s solo exhibition Evisceration, on show until 6 March 2026 at Ruup & Form gallery, brings textile sculpture into an unusually open and emotionally resonant space. Working within the expanded field of fibre and sculptural practice, Kelly presents a new body of wall works, suspended forms and furniture-scale pieces that explore material, embodiment and non-linear modes of thinking, positioning neurodivergence not as deviation, but as a generative creative force.
Kelly’s practice has, for more than two decades, centred on handmade processes and material experimentation. Crochet, macramé and weaving form the backbone of his work, techniques chosen not for for their slow, rhythmic and meditative qualities. Using salvaged and elemental materials such as jute twine, hemp rope, found fibres and fragile natural matter such as eggshells, Kelly builds works that feel both grounded and precarious, holding tension between containment and release.
Christopher Kelly, Evisceration No.3, 2025.
Evisceration marks the fifth chapter of Kelly’s ongoing project Interwoven: Neurodiversity and the Creative Mind, and represents a pivotal moment of exposure within that evolving body of work. Rooted in lived experience of Autism and ADHD, the exhibition examines masking: the often unconscious reshaping of self required to move through neurotypical environments. Here, those internal negotiations are made visible through textile structures that open, unravel and spill outward, resisting neat resolution.
Christopher Kelly, Dis/Functional No.2, 2021.
Rather than relying on visual excess, Kelly allows emotional intensity to emerge through material tension and structural imbalance. Knots, loops and densely worked surfaces sit alongside ruptures and collapses, creating forms that feel intimate, insistent and quietly charged. Installed as a series of interconnected zones, the exhibition invites visitors to move through what Kelly describes as an “inner studio space”, where process, fragmentation and moments of stability coexist.
Christopher Kelly. From L-R: Texture Repetition No.2, No.5, No. 4, No. 3, No. 1, 2024.
Community engagement remains integral to Kelly’s methodology, informing both the conceptual and material language of his work. Collaborations with organisations including Central Saint Martins Museum, Mind UK and the Psychological Professions Network underpin a practice that treats making as an act of shared authorship, care and solidarity. This commitment is palpable in Evisceration, where personal experience opens outwards, inviting empathy and reflection.
Christopher Kelly, Exhibition view featuring Stability Chair (in collaboration with Daniel Hayden), 2024.
There is also a strong dialogue here between textile sculpture and spatial design. Works such as Stability Chair suggest how Kelly’s sculptural language might inhabit interior environments — offering atmosphere, tactility and emotional depth without spectacle. In Evisceration, textile becomes both structure and story: a means of holding what is often unseen, and allowing it, unapologetically, to take form.
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Further Information:
Evisceration is on view at Ruup & Form Gallery, London, until 6 March 2026.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Christoper Kelly, Left: Evisceration No.1, 2025. Right: Contorted No.1, 2025.
All images courtesy of Ruup & Form and as credited in photo captions.