4 Arts Outpost presents: Uninhabited- Eleanor Rodwell By Jack Warren Lockdown changed the concept of
where to look. But also, these pieces
hold Eleanor’s figurative explorations
home radically for everybody. In some
were created in a very different world.
are not only an echo of the furnishings
ways it might never be the same. The
One where the eyes of the public and
which surrounded us during isolation.
relationships between our bodies, our
the walls of the gallery were distant.
They are also a demonstration that
lives, and each other were all shifted
We must wonder about the impact this
fabric is bodily in quality and like the
into another paradigm. Amid these
had on the creative process. This kind
mind and body, can distort, drape and
changes, Norwich-based artist Eleanor
of questioning is something which
crumple under abrasion and pressure.
Rodwell was working on her recent
Eleanor Rodwell specialises in as an
This sets the precedent for the ideas
project Uninhabited which featured in
artist.
explored in many of the pieces.
residence at Outpost Studios earlier this
Eleanor’s ability to communicate
The
most
striking
elements
of
the often-indescribable emotions and
Eleanor’s project are large tapestries
As with much of her work, Eleanor
bodily murmurs that we all experience
that bridge into sculpture, through both
focuses on the body and its often
has always been a touching theme
form and curation. One of the pieces
anxiety-generating mechanisms that
in her work. But the pressures of
was draped off the wall and across the
make us function and feel. With this
lockdown clearly stimulated something
floor, highlighting the difficulty Eleanor
project though, Eleanor brought the
more in this project: the abrasion and
must have had in deciding what form
impact of lockdown on the mind and
melding of the home and the body.
her work was going to take. Eleanor
body into a perspective that can only
These ideas are explored in a depth of
used charcoal and pastel on calico and
be viewed now that we are allowed out
feverish imagination, with lockdown as
silk fabric to communicate the human
again. I went to view Eleanor’s work on
the catalyst. We are once again asked to
body, and all its capability for feeling
the first night of opening in Gildengate
look at how being in isolation changed
physical emotion, into abstraction.
House, Anglia Square.
the way we perceive ourselves, our
As with the materials, the colours
There was something about this
emotions, and the spaces that we
and textures also crossed the boundary
exhibition that had an element of being
inhabit. Put simply, that is what this
between the body and the home. A
both public and private. In part because
exhibition is all about.
meld of blacks, browns, reds, and
month.
of the space itself; Gildengate House
As she points out through her
yellows evoke a sense of the body
can be difficult to find if you don’t know
work, in some ways the home is an
in an elemental way with no time
extension of the body,
for ostentation. Eleanor melds the
and the body in itself
literal fabrics of home with chalked
is a home. Lockdown
abstractions of the body, bringing
brought
whole
the two concepts together in friction.
into
Much like the domestic tension that
question. The calico
was bubbling under the surface of our
and silk fabrics that
lockdown lives did.
this
relationship
Photo: Eleanor Rodwell
