'Mapping the Human Brain' exhibition by Art Number 23

Exhibition Catalogue Anniek Verholt Kira Romano Lapinus Lapinus Sina Ghahremani Samar F. Zia Mia - Jane Harris Danica Bicanic Abi Miller Sandra Beccarelli Kate Buckley Lito Apostolakou Julian Camilo Emma Allen After Before (Stephen McGowan) Guy Tarrant

‘‘Mapping the Human Brain” June 2018

V.23 - The Old Biscuit Factory 100 Clements road, Block F, SE16 4DG

INDEX

1. Anniek Verholt 2. Kira Romano 3. Lapinus Lapinus 4. Sina Ghahremani 5. Samar F. Zia 6. Mia - Jane Harris 7. Danica Bicanic 8. Abi Miller 9. Sandra Beccarelli 10. Kate Buckley 11. Lito Apostolakou  12. Julian Camilo 13. Emma Allen 14. After Before (Stephen McGowan) 15. Guy Tarrant 16. Nikki Hafter

Art Number 23 Art Number 23 is a London-based organisation, mainly responsible for curating art exhibitions inside the U.K. and overseas. The aim is to create opportunities in order to encourage and support artists from all over the world to exhibit and promote their work.

Previous projects of Art Number 23 include exhibitions in NYC and Philadelphia (USA), Moscow (Russia), Berlin (Germany), Athens (Greece) and Amsterdam (Netherlands).

www.artnumber23.uk info@artnumber23.uk

“Mapping the Human Brain” This exhibition focuses specifically on the core part of the brain, the cerebrum and the four lobes.

The exhibition will intend to showcase a range of works to explore in the framework of an artwork being an expression of thought, memory, feeling. Exploring the questions of, what would happen if we went backwards? What if we accorded each artwork in relations to it’s subject matter based in the specific sections of the brain which produces certain subject matters . Thus the exhibition presents a mapping of the human brain with artworks as a presentation of this open inquiry.

In this exhibition the themes of intelligence, self awareness, emotions, fantasy,understanding of words and language, visuals interpreting shapes and colour, memory, space and motion are openly presented in the artworks.

Edited by Keanu Arcadio www.keanuarcadio.com

www.anniekverholt.com / info@anniekverholt.com

Anniek Verholt

The abstract paintings exhibited in this show are part of a larger body of work exploring the every day journey of the mind, how we experience the world and ourselves and how our brain processes and translates this ongoing stream of information. Sometimes this journey includes confusion or overwhelm and other moments it might result in peace and clarity.

How would this experience look like in the form of an abstract painting? Just this question alone provokes a reflective state. And since we perceive an incredible amount every day, we keep our brains busy, and I never run out of inspiration for new paintings!

The exhibited abstract oil paintings, called Mindscapes, illustrate my translation of the processing brain. The composition, texture and use of colour express a still of this dynamic experience.

“Mindscape�. Oil on Paper, 50x40cm

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www.kiraromano.weebly.com / kiraromano@gmail.com

Kira Romano

I took an exacto knife to 9 old painting, paintings hidden away in my closet like secrets or stored away pieces of myself. I pulled them out and tore them into strips. I lay these strips on top of an old self portrait, hiding the original underneath. There are three versions of myself in the piece and only one visible.

The idea simply alludes to a kind of destruction of the old self followed by an understanding that you can never remove parts of who you are, only rearrange, restyle, reappear to the world. A world that has already projected those pieces onto you in the first place. The only control available is knowing what those pieces are and finding a way to arrange them with authenticity.

“Torn�, Mixed media, 60 x 75 cm

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www.lapinus.co.uk / lapinus@lapinus.co.uk

Lapinus Lapinus

“Love on the Brain” is a piece that represents the state of mind we are experiencing when we are in love. We often imagine the heart as the organ that pumps up the blood, however it’s the brain that is responsible for the actions and feelings we experience. I have used the “sacred brain” motif (again, usually represented in a “sacred heart” way) with a dramatic and dark twist, having the sharp kitchen knife rammed straight through, as a symbol of an unhappy love. Is it a broken heart or a broken brain to blame? There juxtaposition of a soft, mushy brain with a sharp object, embellished with shards of black diamond dust depicts the danger of love and the risk we are taking when we fall in love.

“Love on the Brain”, Acrylic on Canvas, with black diamond dust, 76cm x 76cm x 3.7cm

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www.sinaart.co.uk / sina1370art@gmal.com

Sina Ghahremani Imagination? What are these thought about? An infinite thinking about a beauty? who is this?

There is an imagination for searching about the beauty should exist but as an artist, I can’t imagine it properly. This weakness of imagination leads the artist to create and create more unite get close enough to the actual beauty he seeks for. Obviously, there can’t be a perfect outcome for this imagination, but the pathway of creating and seeking for this desire is sufficient enough to enjoy the ultimate happiness and joy of creating art. As an artist, painting is my way for this process. Making and trying different compositions along with using colors and textures, based on human attitude, make me feel free enough.

‘ THE UNKOWN’, Acrylic on Canvas ( Mixed media ), 70 x 70 cm, 2018

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samarzia@gmail.com / www.samarfzia.com

Samar F. Zia My practice is a culmination of the last eight years of work and my visuals derive from personal experience, memory and the fantastical imaginations of my eight-year-old self. Chimera’s that I imagined as a child in response to religious fables appear as recurring motifs in my visuals to express my concerns today.

Biotechnology is at the crux of my concept; my apprehensions about it were catapulted and manifested in my art after reading Francis Fukuyama’s book Our PostHuman Future, which triggered a contemplation of the importance of setting limits and the affect of Genetic Manipulation on Nature, the human body, mind and future.

Overwhelmed by research on the subject - it’s use and abuse of nature and animals to satiate human desires and insecurities, while simultaneously intrigued by its endless possibilities - I elevated the realm of biotechnology to the level of religion, creating deities out of hybrid animals.

Consequentially my visuals represent innovation and survival, nostalgia, growth, resilience and shifts in time and technology.

“Cocooning”, Gouache on vasli, 17 x 29.5 cm, 2016

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www.mia-janeharris.co.uk / mia-jane@live.com

Mia-Jane Harris

My ‘This Little Birdy’ series are created from vintage porcelain figures, taxidermy bird parts, and enamel paint. My work delves into the curious, fascinatingly odd and morbidly beautiful. I aim to intrigue the viewer and pull them in to my world with strange objects and morbid curios to manipulate their emotions on the subject of mortality - life, death & resurrection. I wish to challenge the inevitability of our disappearance after death by preventing decay and rescuing ‘junk’.

‘This little Birdy’, Taxidermy, Ceramics 11.5cm x 10cm x 4cm, 2018

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www.danicabicanic.blogspot.com / danica.bicanic.art@gmail.com

Danica Bicanic

These photos are part of the long-term performance that is questioning spatial perception and individual’s position in it. In this artwork, the space is presented as a result of certain kind of individual’s dwelling that includes actions that create relations understanding of which depends on perception. The photos represent individuals who participated in the performance by placing themselves into the installation - spatial situation that creates one possible point of perception.

“Cycles No 5”, Photography series, 2016

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www.abigailmillerstudio.co.uk / contact@abigailmillerstudio.co.uk

Abi Miller

Pour attempts to capture movement and colour through the gestural process of pouring plaster onto a flat surface. Once set, the pours exist as anomalous objects that intrigue the viewer through their vibrancy, surface texture and consistency, and their temporal viscosity is captured permanently as the plaster solidifies. Representative of the occipital region of the brain, Pour attempts to present the lobe’s function of colour differentiation and motion perception through simple non-figurative visual stimuli, using fluorescent colours to engage, and the natural poured form to suggest a physical gesture.

“Pour�, Plaster sculpture, 40cm, 2018

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www.sandrabeccarelli.co.uk / beccarelli_sandra@hotmail.com

Sandra Beccarelli

“Analysis of Rising and Falling” is a series of paintings investigating sensation and movement, rhythm and anti-rhythm, beats and slips. It is an analytical approach to something which is ‘felt’, be it a physical sensation or emotion. Two paintings have been paired to create a diptych and framed together so that changes and movements between each are visible and the optical effects dance and ripple before your eyes.

“Analysis of Rising and Falling 1”, Oil on canvas, 50 x 70cm

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www.katebuckley.co.uk / katebuckley.co.uk@gmail.com

Kate Buckley Because of its nature and its stripping away of language, dementia blocks attempts to describe its internal experience. My work is an attempt to enter the silent darkness and convey the effects of dementia. ​ ix years ago, my mother was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia, a neuro-degenerative S disease. The parts of the frontal and temporal lobes that controlled her speech production and word recognition were most affected. Since diagnosis, the dementia, like a rubber, has been gradually erasing her interests, empathy and personality. Communication is disappearing. Now, I watch her mind, her language and her identity slipping away.

My work consists of five vitrines, each embodying the skull or the person, and containing representations of dementia, focusing on speech-loss.

“Lost for Words�, installation, mixed media, various sizes,

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www.litoapostolakou.com / l.apostolakou@gmail.com

Lito Apostolakou “Autobiographical memories are mental reconstructions, nifty multimedia collages of how things were, that are shaped by how things are now.”

Charles Fernyhough, Pieces of Light: How we Imagine the Past and Remember the Future, 2012.

“An autobiographical memory constitutes a major crossroads in human cognition where considerations relating to the self, emotion, goals, and personal meanings all intersect. The medial temporal lobe is the ‘hub’ of the autobiographical memory system.”

A. Holland & E. Kensinger, “Emotion and Autobiographical Memory”, Physics of Life Reviews, 2010.

Exploring autobiographical memory as a place where selfhood, place and personal meanings intersect, London-based visual artist Lito Apostolakou pieces together photos from her personal archive to reconstruct a childhood dream. The dreamscape is a blend of fragments of real and imagined places, people, stories and images – the shaded paths of forested Mount Parnitha, fairy-tale characters, illustrations from 1960s children’s magazines, family yarns – a memory of a dream which is a memory of lived experience.

Autobiographical Memory I. Dream 1968 Mixed media series of 9 pieces – a record of an autobiographical memory 11

www.juliancamilo.com / hello@juliancamilo.com

Julian Camilo

My work is focused on transitions and state changes, such as rebirth, growth, decay and death. I’m interested in removing my own hand from the work and allowing natural processes like erosion and decay to leave their own marks.

I’m currently producing work which uses the passing of time as a central theme and also as a key part of the process of creating the work. Books and writing have traditionally been the main way we record history and pass knowledge on to future generations, and this piece is part of a series which explores how their aging and deterioration can mirror our own, both mentally and physically.

“This Too Shall Pass 05”, 22 x 15 cm, Paper, fungus, insects, 2017

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Emmmadallen@gmail.com / www.emmaallen.org

Emma Allen “Just like the lotus we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world.” – Unknown Adam - Grey Matters collaboration between artist Emma Allen and neuroscientist Daisy Thompson-Lake.

This piece is an animated portrait illustrating some of the underlying neurological processes and emotions associated with depression.

Created with face paint and stop-motion animation.

“Adam - Grey Matters”, Video, Duration: 2:10 minutes

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@afterbeforebysjp / sjpmcg@yahoo.co.uk

After Before (Stephen McGowan)

Mildred has many histories and can remember them all. During her initial conception and manufacture Mildred was fitted with a ‘soul-catcher’ device that had been worn by a film historian from 2042 to 2088 - an ‘interest’ in 20th century American cinema has never left her. Mildred worked as an exotic dancer in Bajor in the early 24th Century, just before the Cardassian invasion. She fled to escape capture and enslavement, and became a high-ranking official for the Betazoid Secret Service. Mildred’s cape, believed to be made from a Thasian relic, is said to give the bearer ‘diplomatic’ immunity throughout the United Federation of Planets. Mildred knows who she is and who she isn’t.

“La Belle Epoque” (Mildred Pierced) Media Mixed media Size Size: 79H x 33W x 33 d Year 2018

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guyconceptualart@gmail.com / www.guytarrant.co.uk

Guy Tarrant I work in the mental health sector both as a school coordinator for adolescent SEMMH pupils (pupils with Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties) and with a charity supporting adult artists who suffer with long term mental health problems.

Having worked in the education sector for over 25 years it seems to me that the nature of the way education is generally provided is extremely limiting; not particularly encouraging towards a creative approach nor suitable for a stable sense of wellbeing.

I would like to see emphasis shift towards supporting the creative mind.

I dream of a new brain within humanity, one with a dominate creative hemisphere.

When scornfully contemplating modern thinking Einstein once remarked; ‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant, We have created a society that honours the servant but has forgotten the gift’.

“Creative Brain”, Sculpture, H20cm 27cm width, 2016

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www.nikkihafter.co.uk / @nikkihafter

Nikki Hafter Nikki Hafter creates objects, spaces and encounters that disrupt our sense of normality; whether they be sinister, ridiculous or beautiful.

‘Chimera’ is part of an ongoing series of suspended sculptures that explore corporeality. Translucent, lightweight materials are drawn into complex, three-dimensional geometric shapes that appear to warp and fold with the slightest change in angle. These hallucinatory sculptures defy comprehension, creating a feeling of dislocation between the eyes and the mind.

“Chimera”, Installation, Plastic drinking straws, fishing wire, 2018

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Mapping the Human Brain

V.23 - 100 Clements road, Block F, SE16 4DG