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| Never Afraid 9 - The Woods |
A rather uncanny start to March...
Firstly: Uncanny Landscapes
I'l be showing some of my Never Afraid paintings at The Centre for Creative Collaboration as part of the Uncanny Landscapes exhibition and conference.
The show opens on Monday 4th March when you can also hear me discuss these works as part of a series of artists talks the same evening.
4th-8th March 2013, The Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton Street,, London, WC1X 9NG
with: Dr Mariela Cvetić, Niklas Fanelsa, Sophie Hoyle, Dr Rachel Sarah Jones, David Kendall, Phil Legard, Luke Pajak, Sarah Sparkes, Annie Stogdale & Roz Marsten, Lisa Tilder
Mon 4th March
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM Artist Talks
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Exhibition Opening
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Exhibition Opening
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| Never Afraid 9 - Roman Road |
Never Afraid. This maxim crops up a lot in my work and has it’s roots in an oral history, passed on to me by my mother and grandmother. I grew up in the suburbs, right on the messy edges, where the new build advanced into the ruins of an old stud farm with its patches of damp looking small holdings and rusting barns. The neat gardens ended abruptly at a line of ancient woodland; sheds were the last out-posts between the lawns and the undergrowth. To step off the trimmed edge of an immaculate lawn was to take a plunge into the darkness and tangle of the woods. Domestic comfort and safety was soon out of sight; here one could be ambushed by wild gangs of children, followed by lone, furtive looking adults or glimpse flesh moving mysteriously amongst the rhododendron bushes.
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| Never Afraid 3 -still from a cursed movie I |
As a child, this suburban ‘Heart of Darkness’ found its way into many of my dreams and later, as an adult, into my artwork. Over the past decade, as part of a body of work titled ‘Never Afraid’, I have been making a series of small, intense paintings about these transitional landscapes. The paintings are usually shown as part of an assemblage or installation. Their intimate scale engenders a solitude through which the viewer can participate in this private world. Painted with the maxim Never Afraid – a reference to talismans and incantations, such as the ‘Bless This House’ samplers which attempt to project the domestic space against the foreboding of omnipresent danger – these landscapes, both enticing and menacing, banal and fantastical serve as a reminder that the wilderness is only just beyond the shed
Secondly:
‘The Medium is the Messenger’
I'll be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by *Birgitta Hosea at The Lethaby Gallery at Central Saint Martins
Wednesday 6th March 3-4pm
This is in conjunction with the exhibition: 'Making Knowledge: Researching at Central St Martins.
Birgitta has participated in two GHost exhibitions with her peformance 'Medium'. She has also given a talk about Victorian woman mediums and her own practice at Hostings 9. Documentation of the work 'Medium' is currently on show in The Lethaby Gallery.
*Birgitta Hosea is a Research Leader for Performance and Course Director of MA Character Animation at Central Saint Martins.
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Granary Square
N1C 4AA London
United Kingdom
