Last year when one of our [cloud] members suggested we do a group reading of The Fold by Gilles Deleuze, my first response was ‘Yes!’ A millisecond later, I wondered how on earth I would guide a group of artists through the complexities of The Fold. By all accounts, The Fold is not one of Deleuze’s easier books to comprehend, but it is remarkable for the strategy he used to explain the central premise of his own philosophy by drawing a portrait of the seventeenth-century philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Without going into the depths, Leibniz was influential in the development of the Deleuzian notion that events are objects — or rather that all objects are events — not because of what they are, but because of the relationships they influence and which influence them. Said another way, events are inflection points where change happens.
There is no better way to demonstrate this than through the example of baroque-ness Deleuze used in The Fold. This is not the historical fact of the Baroque period. Rather, it is a quality or groups of qualities that manifest themselves as a baroque idea. For example:
- interior and exterior as continuous rather than opposed.
- matter and thought as endlessly inflecting one another.
- subjectivity as layered, pleated, and in process.
- the world as something that bends, curves, gathers and disperses.
For Deleuze, ‘we are all constantly traversed by actions, events, words, passions and perceptions. Indeed, we are nothing but clusters of “powers to affect and to be affected”’ (Lœrke, 2010:29). In this view, the individual is an expressive force, and the individual is that object which expresses the world, thereby bringing the world into existence. This means the world in which we live is folded into us, and we bring this world into existence through our inner perception — and the ultimate expression — of it. Which brings us to The Fold exhibition.
We are living through several high-stakes inflection points of change in our world: the development of machine-learning, the shifting of political alliances, global warming and environmental degradation, the imminent threat of pandemics, and so many others. It is a good time to explore The Fold through a contemporary lens. Artists were asked to consider those notions of baroque-ness and Deleuzian philosophy in The Fold for our time. The Fold exhibition is their response!
In The Fold, Deleuze gives an example of a house structure with a ground floor of windows and doors. This shows how influences flow in and out of our consciousness creating the conditions for change. But then on the upper level, there are no windows or doors because this is symbolic of the higher self where ideas from the influences below ferment and become our thinking, acting, self.
We have used this structure to organise the exhibition, but we have added a third level. Between the ground and the mind is the body through which these influences are experienced as material sensation, and affective actions and responses. So, you will see three sections in the exhibition:
- Section 1: The windowless upper chamber where the mind, imagination and ideas become active.
- Section 2: Between the upper chamber and the lower chamber to come is the BODY and its material forms.
- Section 3: The windowed lower chamber where influences enter and affect.
Between each section is a transition because baroque-ness demands a fold, or a transition, from one state of being to another represented in these three sections.
The Fold is infinite change; our challenge is finding the resilience to flow with the change. Thank you to all the artists who have shared their creative vision and insight for The Fold. Thank you to Dr Gemma Marmalade who has worked with me in the background to develop this exhibition. And a warm thank you to Dr Jane Robb who is planning an exciting de-symposium — more on that later!
Dr Jane Boyer
Director of Virga Gallery
—The FOLD—
Section 1: The windowless upper chamber where the mind, imagination and ideas become active
Click on any image to see a full-sized view.
Transition 1: To the body
Section 2: Between the upper chamber and the lower chamber to come is the BODY and its material forms
fluorescent tape on linen.
Transition 2: To the lower chamber
Section 3: The windowed lower chamber where influences enter and affect
Bibliography
Cambridge University Press & Assessment (CUPA), 2026. Cambridge dictionary. (online) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/immanence [Accessed: 2 May 2026].
Conley, T. 2006. Translator’s foreword. In: G. Deleuze, 1993. The fold: Leibniz and the baroque. London: Continuum.
Deleuze, G., 2001. Difference et repetition (DR). Translated by P. Patton. New York/London: Continuum.
Deleuze, G., 2004. Desert islands and other texts. (pdf) Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), p.262. Available at: https://monoskop.org/images/2/23/Deleuze_Gilles_Desert_Islands_and_Other_Texts_1953-1974.pdf [Accessed: 2 May 2026].
Deleuze, G., 2006, The fold: Leibniz and the baroque. London: Continuum.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., 1994. What is Philosophy (WP). Translated by H. Tomlinson and G. Burchill. London/New York: Verso.
Lœrke, M., 2010. Four things Delueze learned from Leibniz. In: S. van Tuinen and N. McDonnell, eds., 2010. Deleuze and The Fold: A critical reader. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.25-45.
Van Tuinen, S., and McDonnell, N., eds., 2010. Deleuze and The Fold: A critical reader. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
