“Rather than celebrating movement, HEXIS, through animals, geometry, and embryonic form, honors the deeper power of stillness: the charged silence where form, intelligence, and purpose wait for their moment of revelation, the instant when existence is complete and the future quietly gathers its breath."

Built upon the Aristotelian concept of “hexis”, the repurposed industrial metal and driftwood waste sculptures hold a poised movement of “stable state of internal readiness". In Aristotle’s philosophy, 'hexis' means a cultivated state of being which is in a conscious balance or has a constant and mindful repetition. For the artist, the concept applies to both method and outcome, as the materials used and their contemplative transformation mirror the internal state of balance and readiness. This concept shapes not only the creation of the artworks and their forms but also how the viewers experience them. The stillness instilled within the artworks invites a deep reflection before action.

The debut solo exhibition by Derby-based, Nigerian-born sculptor Ayodeji Kingsley, HEXIS: Before The Seventh, was held from February 15 to 22 at Bank Mill Studios, Derby, and it foregrounds the artist’s ongoing practice of transforming industrial waste into organic animal forms and surreal figures, highlighting the interconnectedness of nature and sustainability. At its core, the exhibition starts with the heavy reverence of metal, in which every piece holds intricate details, inviting viewers to ponder the dialogue surrounding rebirth, psychological depth, and environmental awareness.

Featuring 12 works, the show, following the "Discipline of Six", meaning a form that is architecturally complete but unreleased, represents a threshold of embodied readiness. Here, a structure is architecturally finished but has not yet been "delivered" to its full purpose. The artist invokes six as a governing structure to narrate, spatially and visually, internal and outer states. Taurus Threshold (2026), a red and greenish metal scrap artwork, is one of the most distilled and grounded sculptures in the exhibition, measuring 51 x 30 x 15 cm and featuring a bull as a "monument of compressed intent". In absolute focus, the bull, represented by the head and horns, is hung on the wall, where the compact geometrical form of the head and the thin, delicate, gracious horns inspire a space of absence in anticipation, a withheld charge that blends with the architecture of the space. Within the exhibition context, and for the audience, this work marks a study of condensed architectural forms and bodies that are present without the need for explanation. To the artist, the sculpture is reminiscent of his overall conceptual and material investigation, in which the raw power of metal represents the elusive and complex plenitude of thoughts and feelings and the intangible yet still within-grasp power of human integrity and the natural world. 

Perhaps, if this work holds its space by stillness and raw power, The Weightless Weight (2026), measuring 69 x 58 x 5 cm, a black and brown manta ray gliding through “liminal space” balances its energy, serving as a visual metaphor for the soul in suspension that has reached completion and is "breathing" just before the next movement. This confluence of concepts and visual narratives gives the artist’s work a social dimension, a reflection on our interconnectedness with the environment that challenges human inner spaces and the cycle of unrestrained consumption and material acquisition.

Present in the exhibition, too, is an architectural interval. The Steady Pace (2021) is a profoundly detailed and realistic sculpture of a walking beagle that embodies the refined rhythm of instinct, as the dog is captured in "disciplined movement". Striding through the environment may appear out of place, yet it represents another aspect of the artist’s narrative, motion, and agency. A related study, Pull of Purpose (2026), made from metal scraps and driftwood, goes a step further, representing two squirrels in cooperation; one reaches while the other lifts. The metal sculpture’s movement, frozen action, and detailed texture provide a space for completion that requires collaboration and joint effort.

Moving through the exhibition involves stepping in and out of thresholds of readiness and stillness by intentionally placing artworks (pieces like the Taurus Threshold (2026) suspended against the wall to create a sense of contemplation) and moving between different, equally poised beings. Ayodeji Kingsley, whose visual narratives are inspired by surrealism, paronomasia, and African proverbs, leads us on a meditative path between imagination and reality, allowing our subconscious to look beyond the surface of form. Sitting somewhere between mid-execution, without speech or motion, the industrial debris sculptures redefine our understanding of waste, not only by representing the remnants of a society obsessed with material acquisition but also by the formal repurposing of industrial detritus. From the conceptual narrative, spatial architecture, and works exhibited, Kingsley provides a walk into readiness, biological thresholds, and waste transformation. Rather than celebrating the culmination or the action and agency itself, the exhibition attends to the charged stillness and the "intelligence of poise" that precede unfolding.

Ayodeji Kingsley: HEXIS - Before the Seventh was on view at Bank Mill Studios, Derby, through February 2026.

Find more about the artist here.

All images courtesy of Ayodeji Kingsley.