Upcoming
2012
Stable States,
Cultivate, Vyner Street
Corner of Vyner Street and Mowlem Street, London, E2 9HE
February 17th- 22nd 2012
Opening reception Thursday 16th February 2012 6-9pm
open 11:30am- 6pm Thursday- Sunday, or by appointment.
STABLE STATES brings together six contemporary artists working across a range of disciplines and media. Featuring Elaine Johnson, Yasmina Chami, Anna Haward, Mark Rose, Sadie Hennessy and Ben Gooding.
YASMINA CHAMI is an architect whose work with war damaged buildings from her native Lebanon attempts to reconstruct new uses for them by erecting temporary structures that have a transformative effect. Here, she has designed a circus out of the ruins of the countries past.
SADIE HENNESSY's work is concerned with absurdity and nostalgia and operates within the particular cultural framework of an eccentric Englishness. Her practice currently involves creating objects that are unsettling, often utilising a dark humour to illicit a reaction in her audience.
ELAINE JOHNSON's work explores the boundaries of what textile based craft, drawing and sculpture can be, using reclaimed fabrics, human hair, obscure objects and simple thread to create site specific installations. Her work is a detailed, labour intensive and obsessive process which is reminiscent of the history and traditions of the textile industry itself, evoking the lace makers, the spinning of thread, a memento of the left behind.
In BEN GOODING's work there is an abandonment of colour, of gesture, of the expressive, and instead he instates an almost mechanistic methodology that is devised prior to execution and cannot be deviated from during production. The work has a meditative quality, the repetition of a single form synonymous with a mantra, yet there is a stark mathematical edge underpinning each piece. The work occupies a space between a pure reductive detachment of authorship and an acknowledgment of the hand made.
ANNA HAWARD has focussed on the tradition of line drawing, her approach ranging from continuous to blind line drawings and favouring the underappreciated medium of black and blue biro pens. Through her work, she seeks to produce a simplicity of form which describes fragments of reality, where less is more. She likes to draw everyday cafe scenes and to catch her friends and family immersed in introspective activity.
MARK ROSE is fascinated with fractal patterns and the macro/micro iteration of scale that underpin reality. In “Tinnitus Tetrahedron”, this idealized mathematical form has been remade using cotton buds which the artist has obsessively accumulated over several years through a ritualized daily routine. The piece suggests an inner emotional state that contrasts with the outer facade we often present to the world.
Visit Cultivate Vyner Street website here.
2011
Extension, Curious Duke Gallery, London, Nov/Dec 2011
Islington Exhibits solo show, Par Café, London, July/August extended to November 2011
Islington Exhibits solo show, Theorem Hair Art, London, July/August 2011
Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory, London, July 2011
Courtyard Arts Open, Hertford Theatre, Hertfordshire, April/May 2011
'Traces' solo show, Trestle Arts Base, St Albans, Hertfordshire, February- April 2011
2010
Grand Designs Live, ExCel, London, May 2010
Embroiders Guild meets UH at AVG, Art Van Go, Knebworth, January/February 2010
2009
New Designers Part 1, Business Design Centre, Islington, London, July 2009
University of Hertfordshire Degree Show, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, May 2009
2008
Living Crafts Show, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, May 2008
