'Our Nature' exhibition by Art Number 23

Exhibition Catalogue

Kyveli Anastasiadi Min Angel David Burns Cara Farnan Annamaria Girardi Nikki Hafter Hsin-Chin Hung Maureen Jordan Ricky Leaver Fiona Masterton Andrew Payne Willie Robb Jordan Williams Giovanna Lorio

Our Nature

April 2018 V.23 - The Old Biscuit Factory 100 Clements road, Block F, SE16 4DG

info@artnumber23.uk / www.artnumber23.uk

INDEX 1. Jordan Williams 2. Nikki Hafter 3. Hsin-Chin Hung 4. Cara Farnan 5. Kyveli Anastasiadi 6. Andrew Payne 7. Fiona Masterton 8. Annamaria Girardi 9. Maureen Jordan 10. Willie Robb 11. David Burns 12. Ricky Leaver 13. Min Angel

cargocollective.com/jordanwilliams / Jordanreecewilliams@hotmail.co.uk

Jordan Williams Jordan Williams presents to the viewer a way to access pleasure and contentment in our contemporary urban environment. Combining inspiration from modern interior design and an ever-deepening interest in the theory of biophilia he brings the comfort of plant company in the gallery.

Advocating the necessity a green presence in our homes.

‘Biophilia’, H: 1m W: 1m, Steel, Concrete, Soil, Plant, 2018

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www.nikkihafter.co.uk / nhafter@gmail.com

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

‘Breach’ is a wall-based work that suggests the encroachment of nature into manmade space. It appears as an aperture through which the outside is creeping in.

The durability of human artefacts is shown to be lacking, the gilt crumbling and dirtied, whilst moss [one of the most ancient forms of plant-life on this planet] remains evergreen.

‘Breach’, 2018, Reindeer moss, found wood, imitation gold leaf, acrylic, 45 x 35 cm

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gypsophila@live.co.uk

Hsin-Chin Hung ‘Winter’ is inspired by the details of natural forms including layers, textures and shapes. Found materials including branches, fabric, string, and wood fragments are included within the work.

The work was made shortly after I returned to England from a summer in my home country of Taiwan, and is an attempt to translate feelings of a of a time of a colder winter environment and the sense of unsettlement in new surroundings.

‘Winter’, 100x 100x 15cm, sculpture, 2015

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carafarnan@gmail.com / www.carafarnan.com

Cara Farnan “Temporal Orbit is a series of experimental works which arose out of investigations into our spiritual relationship with the rhythms of landscape and time, suggestions of the idea of time as landscape and a consideration of the cyclic patterns of time and space in relation to the direct cyclic materiality of the landscape.

Thinking through the significance of natural cycles in marking time led to the creation of an alternative and invented ‘cycle’ by which the day could be measured. Rocks resting in the seas along the coastline rise up each morning from their watery beds to float through skies and clouds, then, completing an orbit, come to rest in the seas once more.”

Cara Farnan is a Visual Artist based in Dublin, Ireland whose work attempts to find balance within the contradictions of knowledge and sensation. she works in a variety of forms including sculptural and site-specific installation, sound, text, video, drawing and printmaking. Since graduating with a BA(Hons) in Fine Print from NCAD in 2016 Cara has completed residencies in the RHA School, Dublin; Haihatus, Finland and Cow House Studios, Wexford. Her work has been exhibited throughout Ireland and Internationally.

‘Temporal Orbit’, variable size Piece 1: rock, string, nail, pencil on wall.

Piece 2: glass vases, rocks, copper wire, water.

2017

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Kyveli.arts@gmail.com / www.instagram.com/kyveli_anastasiadi

Kyveli Anastasiadi Universes and Palnets and Black Hole are part of a series of works drawn with a single movement. In that case, with an anti-clockwise movement, the result is never the same and always unexpected. The title Universes and Planets was born after the images have emerged and represent my deep admiration for all that inverse is there to reflect back to us; multidimensionality and union. Black Hole was born after being inspired with the time spent in the early days of knowing my partner, which could not and still cannot be measured with earthly clocks.

‘Universes and Planets’, 30x30cm, Acrylic on Paper

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www.andrewpayne.org.uk / admin@andrewpayne.org.uk

Andrew Payne This film is from a collection of close-up studies of water as it flows over a weir. It captures the interaction of a landscape with the light on the surface of the water. Its appearance is often affected by gradual changes in the sky above the weir - for example as the cloud cover changes.

Some of these changes can be very subtle and occur slowly, almost imperceptibly. The combination of the closeness to the water’s surface and the fluidity of the water can create images that are very abstract in appearance.

An album of 4 video works Medium: HD video, mainly between 1 and 2 minutes in duration.

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www.fhmasterton@gmail.com / www.fionamastertonart.co.uk

Fiona Masterton ‘River-bank’ started with an ordinary walk through an urban environment, by the side of a small river close to where I live – a piece of wild London.. Alongside the delicate vegetation framing the scene and the shadows and dappled light on the water, I wanted to capture the more mysterious aspects. A maelstrom of rhythms and patterns, suggestions of the baroque inner world, the idea of your subconscious looking back at you.

‘River-bank’, 99 x 66 cm (Diptych), Photographic digital montage and oil paint on canvas, 2014

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a.girardi58@hotmail.it / www.saatchiart.com/annamaria.girardi

Annamaria Girardi My work is inspired by nature; the landscapes I experience everyday intrinsically become part of me.

Gesture and self-exploration give life to dots, which develop into lines, and so tangles that evolve into familiar inner shapes. Altered and idealised landscapes which are not only visible to the naked eye.

The lines are alive and dynamic under the thrust of an internal force; bearing energy, authority, strength, and endurance they stimulate meditation on universal themes. Although singularly alike, their meaning varies depending on layout and spectator. Spectacle and spectator become one in a developing process.

The same happens with time – every moment can contain and condense eternity in itself. Therefore, time is experienced as a measurable arrangement of movement, namely the rhythmic succession of phases through which evolution of nature takes place.

The past is active in the present and through their symbiosis the future is generated.

‘La terra del cielo’, cm80x80 acrylic and pencils on canvas, 2014

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maureenjordan2009@gmail.com / www.mvjordan.com

Maureen Jordan Maureen Jordan is a Northern Irish artist now living in Kent. She won the 2016 Ashurst Emerging Sculptor Award and made these limited edition miniature sculptures as part of her recent solo exhibition ‘The Last Gift’ in Folkestone.

Pandora was the first woman of classical myth, created as a beautiful work of art. The giver of gifts, at first divine then sent to Earth with a container holding every human ill, she became at once mortal and blamed for the distress and suffering of mankind after her fall from grace.

Magpies are intelligent, curious birds (they are said to recognise themselves in mirrors)! who are attracted to shiny objects, often found in their nests. They seem to be jacks of all trades - scavengers, predators and pest-destroyers, with a challenging attitude.

As an artist who uses found objects and recycled materials in my work, I relate to the magpie.

‘Pandora’s Boxes’, H: 202 cm W: 62 cm D: 42 cm 4 small sculptures each in a glass box containing a magpie skull and a charm.

All contained in a birdcage/case, 2017

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www.willierobb.com / info@willierobb.com

Willie Robb Societal concern is at the core of my personal work. I use a variety of photographic styles and approaches to consider the physical impact of dogmatic, political ideology. It’s a fruitful time to critique the powers that be.

SPIKES is a reaction to a growing homeless community in Brighton. I collected flowers and fauna breaking through the pavement in Brighton and crushed them into large format film. After a week I’d shine a little blue light onto them before developing and scanning the negative.

The resulting photograms / organic stains were almost psychedelic in appearance which was intentional. I didn’t want to create images that prompted pity or shame, or anger even. I wanted to make images that projected the potential that everyone has, regardless of their situation and financial status.

‘Spikes #10’, 2013, 26 x 32 inches, Giclée print

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d.burns@live.co.uk

David Burns Nature being used and/or manipulated through art has always been a passion , and is evident through out my own practice when manipulating landscapes, by falsely replicating nature or by bringing the everyday into a gallery space under a new identity. The whole time wanting to tempt the viewer to see their surroundings with new eyes.

The piece ‘Our Materials’ creates a direct link between natural materials we see and use daily and mankind. Whether that’ s plant life aiding us to breath, iron moulded to create items we need for survival or glass used to protect us fr om the elements. The marriage of these 3 materials shows how man can adapt nature to our advantage.

Just l ike the discarded fallen branch, we’ve become complacent with our world’ s natural resources.

‘Our Materials’, 40x20x50cm, Iron, Glass, Wood, 2010

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ricky@londonstills.com / www.rickyleaver.com

Ricky Leaver The Giant’s Steps, sitting below the famous White Horse at Uffington, is not man-made as many would believe, but a geological wonder.

The extraordinary folds in the chalk downs of Oxfordshire have been carved out by the retreat of permafrost in the last Ice Age (about 11,700 years ago).

‘Ice Age’ Giant’s Steps, Oxfordshire Taken 11 June 2015 16” x 12” digital print, mounted and framed, edition 1 of 25 On Cadbury Hill on the old Iron Age hill fort stands a bleached dead tree.

Lonely and isolated. But across the valley there is life and hope in the shape of a small copse on top of Parrock Hill. A mother with her infant children.

‘Back from the Dead’ Parrock Hill, Somerset Taken 10 September 2015 16” x 12” digital print, mounted and framed, edition 1 of 25 A raging Atlantic storm on the north coast of Cornwall. Primal, deafening, terrifying. The sort of weather perfect for the ‘wreckers’ in Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn who lured ships and their crews to their death on the deadly rocks in order to steal their cargo.

‘Ship Wreckers’ Millook, Cornwall Taken 18 May 2015 21” x 14” digital print, mounted and framed, edition 1 of 25 12

www.minangel.com/ / min.angel@mac.com

Min Angel I explore the liminal in language, form and being, a state of transition and ambiguity moving from the known into the unknown and opportunity. Chance finds by their unexpected nature forge new connections and encourage exploration, a change from one state to another. Root Up is made from the broken root of a bay tree seasoned with oil pastels.

‘Root Up’, approx. 72 cm x 17 cm x 19 cm, Root, oil pastel, 2018

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Our Nature

V.23 - The Old Biscuit Factory

100 Clements road, Block F, SE16 4DG