exhibitions
What We Bring to the Table
an exhibition by Critical Edge Collective, 2024
From March 21st to the 25th, the ‘Critical Edge Collective’ are presenting their new work in an exhibition, ‘What We Bring to the Table’ at the Safehouse on Copeland Road, Peckham. Featuring the work of nine recent MA Graduates from the College of Fine Art at Camberwell.
Through a blend of performance, sculpture, painting, print and film the exhibition draws attention to and explores alternative ways of looking at class tension, the corporal body, paradox and power. Each artist brings a unique visual voice to the show but as a collective, they have a shared commitment to question how art can enable and enact social and political change. Taking as a starting point Appadurai et al’s 2021 quote.
… is aesthetic, artistic, or political radicality in art still possible under the neoliberal condition? Can, or should, artistic practice constitutes a significant site of resistance? Conversely, is the contemporary art world a paradigmatic case of, and even a model for, neoliberal capitalism?
Recognising the power of the group show format, this new collective finds its home and connectivity in the ‘Safehouse’, an abandoned skeleton of a former Victorian terraced house. Responding to the remnants of this former domestic structure with its social symbols of place, the collective transforms and subverts the physical space in its investigation into the relationships between inequalities, power and ephemerality.
'What We Bring to the Table' is an invitation for the audience to engage with the questions raised above and enter into discussion with the artists about their work.
Layers of Being - an exhibition by art collective Second Shift, 2023
The Second Shift Art Collective is a group of women artists who have developed their art practice later in life, following other careers. The independent work the collective produces crosses many disciplines including: sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and installation; and the artists’ interests are wide-ranging. What holds the Collective together is a shared sensitivity to materials, time and space; to the depth of other experiences that each artist brings to her practice; and to the relational contexts in which work is created.
The Collective meets in person monthly to critique and encourage one another’s work in progress, and uses whatsapp as a collaborative forum to inspire, rage, laugh, cheer and galvanise. The Second Shift Collective has this agenda at its heart: to generously give support, space and voice to the work of mid-life women artists who are often invisible in contemporary culture.
Layers of Being is the inaugural show of the Second Shift Art Collective. The works of the 9 artists involved, weave together stories, memories, secrets, objects, time and identities. The show includes paintings, textiles, sculpture, video and printmaking, exhibited in the forgotten space of a derelict Victorian terraced house in Peckham; the works engage with this eroded domestic space.
Making Conversation: Fine Art Research Festival, 2023
A celebration of practice-led research, which included workshops, talks, publications, artist’s books and essays.
My contributions to the research festival focused on the research I had been pursuing, exploring memory and loss in the context of the landscape; how we seek to understand, navigate and contain complicated and unruly emotions; and the steps we take to attempt to preserve memories for ourselves and future generations.
My artist’s book On Memory is a physical reflection ofthe ideas I had been exploring throughout the MA, which are summarised in this essay of the same name.
I also participated in a podcast with classmate Joy Stokes, where we reflected on our collaborative relationship and outcomes.
Convergence
'Convergence' was an exhibition of work by women artists from across the Camberwell MA Fine Art pathways, which I co-curated with fellow student Carmen Van Huisstede. The participating artists were from a wide array of backgrounds and artistic practices and were all MA Fine Art students at Camberwell. The core concept of the exhibition was to juxtapose the perspectives and cultural influences that each artist brings and to celebrate the connections and friendships that evolved over the past year.
My works were porcelain tiles that I had coated with photo-emulsion and developed images using negatives from some of the many photographs my father took - making these pieces was an exercise in remembrance and catharsis.
I also showed two collaborative work with Joy Stokes: Dialectics of the Skin which considers the paradox of the skin’s fragility in the context of lymphoedema – needing regular heavy moisturisation with thick, greasy creams to prevent cracking and tearing – with its function as barrier between the body and world; and Fluid Dynamics, which juxtaposes an image of bubbling, lively crystal clear alpine streams with the gestures and movements of Joy’s legs where the lymphatic fluid collects and distends.
