Jonathan Baldock: Held review – lick me, trap me, pull me in

Arms are spread, hands are grasping, lips are puckered: everything in Jonathan Baldock’s eerie, uncomfortable, strange exhibition of tapestries and ceramics at Bristol’s Arnolfini is reaching out to you. The whole exhibition is an invitation to be held, or maybe its cuddliness is a threat, a violent trap.

The English artist has created a tense world of folkloric psychedelia and pagan aesthetics here. You walk in and it’s as if you’ve stumbled on some messed-up rural ritual, a rite where you might get invited to put on one of the wheat masks on the wall and take part, or find yourself trussed up as sacrifice.

Two lifesize felt figures greet you as you enter, their robes decorated with leaves and greenery. Pink holes at crotch level hint that these robes serve other purposes too. On the walls, ceramic flowers have grown noses and ears, a tongue pokes out of the centre of a grey poppy, trying to lick you as you walk past.

jonathan baldock, arnolfini, bristol, tapestries, ceramics, felt figures, wheat masks, folkloric psychedelia, pagan aesthetics, ceramic flowers