Nicola Green has been exploring the power and symbolism of non-verbal communication throughout her career. Focusing on noteworthy social-historical events, Green searches for the most essential meaning and form, exposing the gestures and symbols which capture the significance of that moment. Through this process she seeks to distil the complexity of the global narrative and ensure its themes and meaning can be understood for generations to come.

Hands have been a constant focus during the recent pandemic. We wash them, we clap-our-carers with them, we wave them at each other through glass, or signal with them from a distance. Our gestural movements have become an even more vital form of communication.

In Wave, Putti I-III 2020 Green has developed a series of works depicting four hands, each outstretched, open palmed, a symbol of hope and peace, of unity and global connection. The outspread arms are lightly deckled with ivy, an evergreen plant symbolising strength and faith through its binding power.

Hovering behind the hands are a multiplicity of cherubs, angels playing in the clouds in a Dionysian expression of joy. The cherubs, as well as the ivy, reflect the duality in the cycle of life. Cherubs, or putti, are a fixture of western art history, associated with peace, prosperity and mirth, and always depicted as white. Green has portrayed the cherubs as mixed race, in a bid to question our assumptions and expectations about our global and connected identity and legacy.

Wave, Putti I-IIII 2020 are being exhibited in Isolated Observations at Candida Stevens Gallery in aid of Winston’s Wish. Nicola has been a life-long supporter of the charity after her sister died when she was a child.