March 7th – April 5th 2020
Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, Di Halstead, Marianda Twydell, Helene Carpenter
Fabricated Narratives engages with the stories we construct about our lives and experiences. The challenge thrown to the artists was to create works which examine either their own ‘fabricated narratives’, or to fabricate stories for objects or their remnants.
Whether historically accurate or playfully inventive, each work in the exhibition is part of a fabricated story. In addition, the development of the thoughts, the trials and gradually refining of options in the minds of the artists have been recorded in the form of video, social media, notes and samples all of which form a fascinating segment of the exhibition experience.
The exhibition consists of monoprint landscapes by Helene Carpenter, photographs by Di Halstead, repurposed found objects by Marianda Twydell, drawing and conceptual sculptural textiles by Alysn Midgelow-Marsden along with the results of collaborative, experimental pieces which use less familiar techniques and media to create ‘fabricated narratives’ in shared ways.
The joint collaborative project show how artists can respond to another’s stimulus forming a visual conversation.
This diverse exhibition has returned from a UK tour and a flavour of the overwhelming number of comments received are:
“This is my favourite part of the whole show”; “Jaw dropping gorgeous”; “Out of this world”; “I love looking at these things that have so much detail…I love detail”; “I find it moving because it plays with shape and perspective and she puts you in the landscape in a vulnerable place, which makes the landscape come to life and you put yourself in the landscape in a fresh new way”; “Oh wow these are lovely.”; “Making the ordinary…..extra ordinary”
Curator, Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, says ‘The works in the exhibition should not be simply justified by technical expertise, which tends to be a preoccupation amongst makers, and though not to be disparaged, I feel that discussions surrounding the technicalities of making should not overshadow the heart of the works. Here are makers whose practices diverge from traditionally held criteria in order to clearly display their meaning and intent.’
Helene Carpenter works predominantly within the boundary of printmaking, painting and drawing, though she explores many other forms to engage with her passionate explorations of themes.
Di Halstead’s art practice has centred on identity though cultural, personal and ecological issues. She sometimes uses the agency of objects to express this or the abstractness of clouds.
Marianda Twydell enjoys the freedom of working with items with little monetary value; ephemera from daily life.
She says ‘I examine the materiality of these objects, consider the chances and choices that have led to them being as they now are, then form another part of their story by putting them through at least one process: indigo dying, adding stitch, wrapping, adding wire or combining with drawing…. My state of mind at this time is also part of the process’.
Alysn Midgelow-Marsden says ‘It has long seemed to me that the patterns, movements and interactions of water when acted upon by other forces encompass the constructs and narratives we live by. I develop these patterns and discourses in the form of expressive, abstract forms to develop a narrative which may be read visually without the constraints of words.’