The German term ‘Eckdaten’, meaning ‘corner data’, describes the basic information one needs to understand the essence of something. For her first solo exhibition in London, Miriam Stoney applies this term, and this knowledge, to a series of 12 varyingly-treated sculptures, all of which take their dimensions from the length from her elbow to the tip of her middle finger. They are each positioned on the floor to form a labyrinth, deriving from her research into mazes and their myriad applications in literature, architecture and art.

Formed from readymade materials, the exhibition explores the labyrinth from the artist’s physical and psychological perspectives. The placement of the sculptures is defined by her meandering movements, alluding to both the mythological maze-maker Daedalus and the Minotaur, the hybrid figure imprisoned in the labyrinth. The maze winds Stoney into self-imposed traps of her own: internal doubts about her abilities and sense of belonging result in each corner being stripped to its most rudimentary reading. The three drawings of maize point to the sense of humility she feels while trying to find her way out.

Stoney asks: ‘What’s the minimum information or structure needed to get lost, to digress…?’ The red thread which appears in glimpses throughout the exhibition connects to the German idiom ‘roter Faden’, often used in literature to describe a connective train of thought or, as the Greek myth goes, the thread given by Ariadne to Theseus to trace his path from the slain Minotaur, out of the labyrinth.