Lonely salads.
Banished dogs.
Undead plants.
Not sipped coffees.
New story paintings by Ida Lawrence.
With an accompanying text by Rob Crosse:
‘Grows pushy in well drained soil’
Solo exhibition
Exhibition opening: Thursday 15 August, 18:00 – 22:00
Retramp Gallery
Reuterstraße 62, 12047 Berlin (near Hermannplatz)
Open Thursdays – Sundays, 14:00 – 20:00.
15 – 25 August 2024
Artist talk event: Saturday 24 August, 15:00 – 16:00.
If you would like a reserved spot, please email info@retramp.com
A gift from Rob
Thank you Rob
Rob says it’s
Diff ic ic ic ic ic ult
To Kill
Thank you Rob
In my mother’s family, a guest is asked if they’d fancy a cuppa. If no, no beverage is served. But if yes, a weak brew is made in a pot, poured into cups and served with milk. The milk is presented in an elegant little jug if you’re lucky, or out of its 2 litre bottle fresh from the refrigerator door if you’re … really lucky?
Common visitor comments: This tea is as weak as piss. Did you forget to put the tea leaves in the pot?
In my father’s family, as soon as a guest walks through the door, tea is served — whether they like it or not. It appears black, in a glass and pre-sugared, following the equation:
The greater the volume of sugar = The greater the love for the tea drinker.
(My aunty, who I love — and who is loved dearly by her family — has diabetes.)
Four dessertspoons of sugar in one glass is too much love for me. Once I asked my cousin if I may have teh tawar. I could see the request physically pained her — what if word got out that she’d served sugarless tea?!
Eventually she agreed —
and proceeded to fill the glass with two heaped spoonfuls of the sweet granules.
I lie
awake
at night
tossing and
turning
with
CONFIDENCE
Huw is the kind of friend you can show your tooth collection to and he will make the right kinds of noises.
Right: Wylie’s with Huw 2019, gouache & pencil on acid free watercolour paper, 29.7 cm x 21 cm.
A “friend” in Indonesia can be someone you’ve known a long time or someone you’ve met just once. (Laah… kamu dari Sydney ya? Temenku loh dari sana juga. Hmm eh ee… Siapa namanya? Hadeh lupa namanya. Wkwkwkwk)
In Australia it can be someone you mock persistently or occasionally throw under a bus. (Nah maaayte I was just jokin!)
In Germany I do not yet understand what a friend is… Laurina, who I meet in Friedrichshain, says a friend is someone you’ve already had coffee with.
Laurina and I have had three coffees together.
Karla and I drink coffee together every Tuesday.
Jonas and I have been trying to make time to get coffee, but we’ve had to postpone twice.
I have drunk tea with Jana while she drank coffee.
Karsten doesn’t drink coffee.
(Aber Laurina kommt aus der Schweiz)
The shop displays a sign on the door, the door supposed to welcome.
The sign excludes particular folk, precisely at eye level.
Particular folk wait outside the shop, facing the sign,
seething.
Eat the rainbow!
(…malnourished homophobes…)
Top: Beady Eyes Big Feels 2024, 2 colour riso print on 270gsm Metapaper extra rough warm white, 21 cm x 14,8 cm (A5). Edition of 100 +10AP.
Bottom: Palette II 2018/2023/2024, silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 30 cm x 40 cm.
Verity Oberg and Retramp Gallery, Rob Crosse, Khaled Kurbeh, Caitlin Hespe, Anke Klevjer, Onur Çimen, Tahlia Raji, Jennifer Yang, Karla Neumeyer, Manzur Kargar, Florian Groß, Claas Selck, Carsten Becker, Mina Braun, BPA// Berlin program for artists — and everyone who inspired the art works.
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Ida Lawrence – Art and Projects 
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