Exhibitions
Interlude by Slade Sculpture Students at Lewisham Arthouse
Kinsman, J (2024) Prophecy Drawing 1 [Drawing]. Lewisham Arthouse, London (Viewed: 26 January 2024).
I was interested to see how my cousin's drawing had taken on a more three dimensional form through the use of a wooden frame. Hair creatures brought together the animal and human. I felt as though I was looking at the cross section of a doll's house but in a strange dream world with a touch of eeriness in the uncanny barbers shop where hairs are scattered across the tiles. In this world hair makes roof tiles and windows don't have blinds but transparent curtains which fill with coloured liquid. There was a great variety of precise yet evocative line.
I liked these long organic textured forms with hung following the vertical lines of the architecture.
Although the stacked form was not particularly original, I was interested in how this joyful sculpture was made from boiled sugar. At the moment I am particularly interested in texture and I was intrigued by the bubbles in the sugar and fluid stretch of the material next to oozing bumps.
Other students' work at Studio 18 Millbank Exhibition
This painting student makes meticulous photorealistic graphite drawings of Nature such as forests and trees. The group was particularly impressed by this work. It has a soft quality. It can be both interpreted as a soulful nostalgic photograph and a scene with presence, which we are currently in.
The photography student who exhibited next to me had a collection of photographs and small paintings. I was drawn to these realistic, seemingly sun-drenched paintings which looked like photographs of trees. Their accuracy perhaps contrasted with my more abstracted dead tree roots.
I felt this painting at the end of the room linked back effectively to my work at the beginning of our section due to the mirroring of tree roots and greens.
This sculpture student's work was my favourite in the exhibition. I recognised her work from the Pop-up show before the Christmas break. Yet this time themes of delicacy had become even more pertinent with water dripping off the fan form onto the ground. I felt it would make a memorial piece. The artist explained how she chose the form of a fan as fans are used to express emotion and are symbolic, using the example of women showing when they're looking for a husband to marry through the positioning of a fan. There is a sense of meditative stillness. It is both hopeful in its illumination and sorrowful in the rain or tears dripping on the form of the white feathered fan like an upside down dove. The acrylic had a certain texture and thickness which had a presence. Water made several appearances in various works in the exhibition.
Bold organic form with expressive line. I'm unsure how it was made but it looks like a kind of print. It is monotone unlike the other works in the exhibition.
This painting is by my friend Xuan Hew. I am familiar with her work so it was interesting to see this painting exhibited in a different way - angled to create the effect of looking up at a mountain. The multi-toned wall paper mirrors the different tones of the mountain as if an extension of the image, taking us to the foot of the mountain.
Where We're Calling From Exhibition at Copeland Gallery
I found this film of two girls hugging moving. There was the sound of birdsong creating a sense of sanctuary and time in nature but also was reminiscent of childhood. I found it particularly touching that this work was likely made by an international student who would've had to leave intimate female relationships when studying abroad, as captured in the video above. The poem is written in two languages creating a sense of identity and a unified understanding; however, the poem appears to create a night scene, contradictory to the day scene in the film shot above - perhaps it tells more of the character's story, or is simply a typo.
I loved this painting of trees and water with delicious, happy colours and loose expressive marks. The water marks were particularly evocative. There may have been a wet sheen to the paint as well, continuing the water theme. The painting has a summer feel. My practice also follows themes of trees and fluidity.
What made this painting for me was the side, which unlike the flat surface, has paint spilling over the edge, reminding one of the materiality of the piece. I am interested in how materials sit on the surface at the moment, in impasto.
I found this sculpture an introverted experience, unlike the other sculptures in the room. A torch on the side of the plinth could be switched on and held, to reveal the delicate threads with what appeared to be coloured dots of wax dripping from them. The shadows were equally delicate. The acrylic gap in the top of the sculpture adds to the lightness; I am unsure if the shape with the uneven edge is a country or just an organic shape. A mirror at the bottom reflects the strings and wax, so that it is perceived from all angles.
Sculpture from Pop-up exhibition at Camberwell
This MA student's sculptures explore the human body and organs as images to evoke the Emotional and mental health struggles which are otherwise invisible, unlike physical illnesses. I am interested in the artist's psyche and how it is expressed through art. This piece was gruesome but effective. An organ or blood drop drips onto the stall through sticky tissue. The stall looks like shiny stitched wet skin which tears open into a tremendous wound on the other side. The legs of the stalls are visible and look like hospital equipment, unlike the plastic tube which supports the drop from the wall in transparent material; the tube is theatrical and has movement but also creates the illusion of the drop falling through the air.
Dulwich Picture Gallery visit: Landscape and the figure within it
Themes found through research
Texture
Trees
Water
Transparency
Delicacy
Landscape :vastness
Traditional landscape/ contemporary landscape painting
Emotions experienced when in the landscape
Where is the line drawn between the Human and Nature
Nostalgia towards a landscape
Discovering our/ my nature through nature
Introverted experiences in Nature
Nature and the strange
Beauty in the sombre in Nature
Nature and escapism
Nature as a mirror of within/ weeping landscape/ paradise
Nihilism/ optimism
Abstraction
Materiality
Experiential research
Spiders' webs
I noticed these unique intricate spiders' webs on the windowsill. The spider which made one of the webs seemed to have died. I was thinking of spiritual plains (Earth, Heaven etc) and the notion of seeing 'light at the end of the tunnel' experienced when dying. I imagined the spider knowing it was dying and mapping out the form of the 'tunnel' to death. Both webs seem to have a runway. Do spiders have spiritual knowledge we're unaware of?.
Evening in Hertfordshire 18.02.2024
I attempted to film the moon behind flurrying clouds. Although the moon could not stay in focus on my phone I still found a sublime beauty, tension and dreaminess in the grainy shots which capture a fleeting memory.
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Film 1) : https://youtube.com/shorts/PwpeSXLiRjY
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Film 2) : https://youtube.com/shorts/jqT-DTC6FCg
Hampstead Heath 19.03.2024
I felt that this evening landscape looked like a painting. I was drawn to the dark silhouettes of trees on the horizon.
I noticed how steep the land was.
This scene excited me as I realised it mirrored my painting - a neon green plain which is luminescent against a darker backdrop. The trees branches are similar to the form of roots.
Primrose Hill 20.03.2024
I was in awe of these fluorescent sunsets. Looking into the sky felt like looking across the sea - vast and distant. The clouds were fluid and created landscapes; I was reminded of the Rorschach test. I am interested in the artist's psyche. The pink sunset in the second photo looked like a plain of land to me, with a river in the middle and a ploughed farmer's land ahead. The blackened clouds against the neon oranges in the first photo made me think of the black backgrounds and contrasting bright colours I have been using in my paintings.
I find a romantic and gothic quality to the dark silhouettes of trees' branches. My practice finds beauty in the sombre in Nature. I am repeatedly drawn to the imagery of birds and moons seen through branches.
Regents Park 29.03.2024
I feel these photos capture the transition into spring in London. Although the cherry blossom and delicate branches remind me of Japanese imagery and water colour/ink painting. I have visited the Japanese Peace garden in Regent's park many times.
Rats on Hampstead Heath 30.03.2024
I have visited Hampstead Heath countless times but each visit is a new adventure with unexpected encounters with nature. On this occasion me and my friend came across a group of large rats, eating the seeds on the ground which had fallen from the bird feeder. It was interesting to see how the animals had formed their own clever system; there was an interplay between animal interaction and human interference (in the form of the bird feeder).
Kenwood 30.03.2024
This scene reminds me of traditional landscape painting. There is a vastness to the land, exaggerated by large dark shadows. I was particularly drawn to how you can see the dark branches of taller trees on the horizon.
Tadpoles 6.04.2024
Going into the tree - bee and flower 4.05.2024
Photographs taken on walk in the woods in Hertfordshire 4.05.2024
This root covered in bright moss was similar to my recent Neon Green Roots paintings. The green roots also reminded me of 'Leonora in the Morning Light' by surrealist Max Ernst.
'Leonora in the Morning Light' by Max Ernst
Oil on canvas, 1940.
Shadows of branches, Camberwell 8.05.2024
Photographs of garden in Hertfordshire 11.05.2024
Ideas for future works
I was inspired by the shadows of trees on the pavement in Camberwell and the dappled light in the garden photographed above in Hertfordshire. I could take large pieces of paper onto the street and trace the shadows of trees with charcoal or graphite and fill in the forms; this would be a physically engaging way of interacting with Urban Nature when there is good weather. Similarly, I could trace the bright spots of light on grass in gardens and parks on white paper. It could be interesting to try this activity with black paper and white chalk or crayon to draw the bright spots. Another idea could be to use glow in the dark paint in the traced forms of dappled light so that the experience could be transferred into a dark exhibiting space, on the floor. Lynda Benglis repeatedly used phosphorescence in her sculptures and people have commented on the neon green glue/acrylic forms in my paintings looking like they could glow in the dark; the colour combination was also inspired by Benglis.
Bibliography
Armitage, M. (2017) Anthill [oil on Lubugo bark cloth]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Benglis, L (1971) Phantom [Sculpture]. DACS, London/ VAGA, New York (Viewed: 4 April 2024).
Benglis, L. (1971) Lynda Benglis Phantom. Available at: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/nathan/lynda-benglis-new-museum-2-11-11_detail.asp?picnum=3 (Accessed: 4 April 2024).
Edmonds, G. (2023) 'Reading Group: Visions of The Self with Gavin Edmonds' [Reading Group]. Camberwell College of Arts. 2 November.
Ernst, M (1940) Leonora in the Morning Light [Painting]. arthive.com (Viewed: 22 May 2024). Available at: https://arthive.com/artists/64891~Max_Ernst/works/546330~Leonora_in_the_Morning_Light (Accessed: 22 May 2024).
Fragonard, J.(1769) Young Woman [Oil on canvas]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty (2021) [Exhibition]. Dulwich Picture Gallery. 15 September 2021 - 18 April, 2022.
Hobbema, M. (Early 1660s) Wooded Landscape with a Watermill [Oil on panel]. Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Interlude (2024) [Exhibition]. Lewisham Arthouse, London. January 27, 2024 - February 4, 2024.
Jose, A. (1660) The Crucifixion of St.Peter [Oil on canvas]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Kimeze, C. (2022) Interior I [oil, pastel, oil stick on suede matboard]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Lorrain, C. (1676) Jacob with Laban and his Daughters [Oil on canvas]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Omuku, N. (2021) Star Gazers [oil on Sanyan]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Pillay, R. (2023) There is Water at the Bottom of the Ocean [Oil on canvas]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Pop-up exhibition at Camberwell (2024) [Exhibition]. Camberwell College of Arts, London. April 17, 2024.
Studio 18 Millbank Exhibition (2024) [Exhibition]. Studio 18, London. March 7, 2024.
The British Museum (2024) cloth; garment. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_2018-2036-4#:~:text=Yoruba%20prestige%20cloths%20and%20garments,and%20is%20lustreless%20once%20processed.(Accessed: 27 May 2024).
The Dulwich Picture Gallery's Permanent Collection (2024) [Exhibition]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich. 1817-2024.
Tiepolo, G. (1750) Diana, Apollo and Nymphs [Oil on canvas]. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (Viewed: 14 May 2024).
Where We’re Calling From (2024) [Exhibition]. Copeland Gallery, London. May 2 - May 5, 2024.