1-29th May 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday 30 April 2009, 6-8pm
“ In our globalised and interdependent world, each person has only a transitory grip on the particular and much concern with the general. The tactile has been usurped by the virtual. That assumption is challenged by the adventures these artists take us on.” Chris Orr
Methodical Adventures features new work in printmaking, painting and video by three highly accomplished artists. All works presented are the result of these artists’ ongoing involvement with the Print department at London Metropolitan University. Conceptually, their respective work is quite distinct from each other, yet formally, in their approach to printmaking and in working within the same print room they share a mutual respect for the important role process plays within this productive environment.
Susan Aldworth’s installation Out of Body (2009) comprises a series of large triptych monoprints, arranged in grid formation, in which visual imagery taken from brain scans is used as a catalyst for exploring the nature of human consciousness. Combining a subtle use of tone, line, mark and impression, this monumental work exudes both abstract and ethereal qualities. Produced during her ongoing time as Visiting Research Fellow at London Metropolitan University (and Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Neurophysiology at St Thomas’s Hospital London), this major new series is also accompanied by Out of Body (2009), a compelling new video work that revolves around the uncanny parallels found in the personal testimonies of those who have experienced ‘near-death’.
Rebecca Jewell is currently Artist-in-Residence at London Metropolitan
University. Since 2005, Jewell has also been Artist-in-Residence at the
British Museum,
during which time she has been working with a veritable assortment of artefacts
from the museum’s Melanesian Collection. Using photography, monoprinting,
etching and watercolour, Jewell presents a remarkably diverse, vivid and intricate
body of work. Jewell was originally trained as a social anthropologist and
this explains her attraction to particular artefacts, representing both the
animal and human world. Jewell’s ardent scrutiny of objects, rarely
seen on public display, becomes a means by which to contemplate and reconsider
the
cultural and social status and value of such collections.
David Skingle’s printmaking is highly influenced by Japanese printmaking
tradition. This is reflected in both his teaching method (as Head of Printmaking
at London Metropolitan University) and the application of a fastidious technique
in exploring the interplay between ‘autographic mark, method and process’.
In this show, Skingle offers us a glimpse of the breadth of his oeuvre which
effortlessly traverses, painting, screen printing, monoprinting and etching
in its contemplation of the ‘everyday’.
In an age when ‘skill’ and ‘technique’ in art are often considered as anachronistic qualities or as merely the concerns of the professional art fabricator, Methodical Adventures provides an opportunity for audiences to experience innovative contemporary work produced with formal and intellectual rigour.
A free illustrated brochure accompanies the exhibition, with texts by Chris Orr and Nigel Oxley.
Seminar Event: ‘Methodical Adventures: Where method is process and process is adventure’
Friday 29 May 2009, 2-5pm, Featuring: Susan Aldworth, Rebecca Jewell,
Nigel Oxley and David Skingle.
Chaired by Chris Orr.
Frederick Parker
Gallery,
41 Commercial Road, London Metropolitan University, Commercial Road
E1 1LA
Entry is free but booking is essential: info@unit2.co.uk/+44 (0)
20 7320 1970
