77 HIGH STREET
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CASTLE DONINGTON
INFO@TARPEYGALLERY.COM
DE74 2PQ
(+44) 777 240 4293
PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SOCKET 8th - 29th September, 2012
Barbara Clayton / Dorothy Dexter / Iain MacLeod-Brudenell / Jane Pepper / Janet Turville / Jo Brudenell / Julia Carter / Nicola Rae / Paula McCann / Robert Allen / Sue Greenaway / Tracey Kershaw Tarpey Gallery presents a diverse group exhibition with works by 13 artists from visual arts collective Socket. Socket, formed in 2011, is a visual arts collective based in the East Midlands, it is artist led and offers mutual support to its members. It provides a forum to further individual careers, promote independent practice and forge beneficial working relationships with other artists, curators and professionals within the visual art field. The diverse practice of the group is reflected through painting, printing, installation, three-dimensional work and digital media. Members of the collective all studied BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of Nottingham, graduating between 2007 and 2011 to establish independent practices before re-uniting to form Socket. Exhibiting Artists; Barbara Clayton, Dorothy Dexter, Iain MacLeod-Brudenell, Jane Pepper, Janet Turville, Jo Brudenell, Julia Carter, Nicola Rae, Paula McCann, Robert Allen, Sue Greenaway, Tracey Kershaw. Exhibition runs from 8th - 29th September 2012, at Tarpey Gallery. 77 High Street, Castle Donington, Leicestershire, DE74 2PQ www.tarpeygallery.com For further information, press enquiries or images please contact Luke Tarpey : info@tarpeygallery.com / 0777 240 4293
Notes to Editors Barbara Clayton In the same way that minutes pass without apparent significance and yet become the building blocks of more interesting times, innocuous marks on the page accumulate and produce an unexpected entity that may be satisfying or perplexing. The process is redolent of the Gestalt phrase, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I am interested how small marks integrate to create textures and form and often allow the process to occur at a subconscious level over several hours. Often I have no design or preformed ideas at the outset of a drawing but allow the pen to be driven by current feelings and mood. The initial work may be created without prior intention but repetition of the markmaking leads to emergent forms which influence and guide further development. The outcome is largely a reflection of an inner state, somewhat akin to the projective tests used in psychology. However interpretation is always subjective and unreliable and viewers should find their own meaning. Iain MacLeod Brudenell I am a multi media and multi disciplinary artist working in and between areas that relate to palimpsest, the hidden; that which 'lies beneath the surface'. My current work combines large scale layered video and sound works based on hearing/ not hearing and in particular the experiences of those with tinnitus. Jane Pepper My background is in the sciences, and I am interested natural history, and its associated conven tions of presentation. The main focus of my practice is digital collage and assemblage, and I use grouping, sequencing, labelling, cross referencing, and archiving activities in making work. A fascination with natural forms has led me to investigate themes of repetition, ‘no two the same’, and the principles of 'growth and form'. I have been exploring the application of hexagonal symme try to selections of organic fragments to develop an archive of 'feasible forms' which serve as base units for combination and extrapolation. I have been experimenting with formats such as posters and field guides in the presentation of these forms, whilst digital cloning techniques have allowed me to test the effects of repetition and scale, and to explore their decorative potential. Visit www.janepepper.co.uk to see more of my work, and www.trustthetale.co.uk as a record of a recent group exhibition. Jo Brudenell My work is primarily concerned with the ambiguous nature of memory, with the reconciliation of matching what we know with what we see. Under the guise of curator of the Museum of the Late Steel Age I present collections of artefacts which may depict the life stories and practices of young women. My work also challenges the way in which conventional museums present knowledge of the past.
Janet Turville Personal memories of childhood form the basis of my work. I have approached the subject of memory as something that needs to be protected and preserved, or alterna tively, obscured and concealed. I incorporate these memories into installations, films, photographs, collages and toys. Mixed media installations of household furniture and soft furnishings feature in my work and may be collaged, embedded with domestic objects or camouflaged with fabric. The materials used are as diverse as aluminium tape, icing sugar or wool. Curtains, table cloths and lace are used as a metaphor for memory, which often lacks clarity and detail. They become the surface for projecting the films onto. A sense of the history of a place often inspires my work. I have explored the notion that dwellings and objects hold their own memories and histories, which are then passed on to subsequent owners. I have lived in houses where carpets were laid one on top of another, wallpaper hung over its previous layers and beds piled high with surplus army blankets. It was as though the houses were overlaid with the memories and histories of their occupants. My aim throughout has been to transform everyday domestic objects into something otherworldly; to overlay the mundane with a sense of magic and to return the audience to their own recollections of childhood. Julia Carter My work explores the experience of being human. I work without a preconceived idea of what the end result will be. My painted works are often time consuming and experimental, creating layers and strip ping them back to create depth. The lack of direction from the outset can be frustrating and confusing as I feel my way through to a conclusion. In this way the process becomes part of the work, as I attempt to show something of the struggles and confusion that we deal with in our lives. Conversely, however, if understood as a necessary part of the work, they can also be appreciated as an essential part of life and the building of personality and character. I also use sound, video, sculpture and installation when exploring my concepts. Nicola Rae Two and threedimensional work develops out of found materials and objects, focusing on lost or imagined identities. Book fragments are used to create ‘pages’ or ‘episodes’ from a history, real or imagined. Juxtaposition results in reinterpretation: new narratives emerge from the objects, marks and vestiges others have left behind.
Paula McCann My work is very much process based. I have an instinctive interaction with particular chosen materials and from this I make sculptural pieces made from such things as red thread, wax, muslin, brown paper, ochre pigment and charcoal. I have recently also started to use wood and carpet tacks as a result of some decorating work I did at home. The sculptural pieces I create come from my physical manipulation of, and emotional interaction with, the materials that I am drawn to. I am particularly interested in my chosen materials because, for me, they have what I would call archetypal resonances. Their tactile qualities of texture, colour and smell trigger my unconscious mind and it is essential for me to work with the materials to form the ideas for my pieces. The repetitive form of the grid is also an important part of my work. I am interested in the paradox of the grid. Being a form that is very rarely found in the natural world, it is seen as contained, static and devoid of narrative. 'It is what art looks like when it turns it's back on nature'. said Rosalind Krauss* but through my own work with grids and looking at some of the work of the many modern artists who have used them, it seems to have endless possibilities and often has a more organic and natural feel than one would expect. Bob Allen Since my childhood I have had an interest in mechanical devices. When I was a small boy I had the usual Dinky toys and Meccano but then I was given a quantity of Plasticine with which I modeled a world of machines and mechanisms. When I grew up I studied engineering and this interest in machines developed into wanting to find out how they worked in detail. So I soon became more interested in what was happening underneath the bonnet of the car rather than the shape of the car itself. The machines and mechanisms in which I am interested are part of everyday objects such as cars, dishwashers, water pumps etc., which we all rely upon, but rarely see. They are designed to fulfill a function but when they go wrong we curse and replace them without a moments thought. In this series of prints I celebrate these hidden machines by making them into art objects in their own right. Dorothy Dexter In life we gather memories and experiences, some of which interlink whilst others stand alone, and some have greater emotional meaning or influence on the paths that are followed. Ultimately they tend to merge together with shadowy images, hues and outlines retained through the layers of the passing years, hinting at what was once there. This then is the background to how we live the present. Over time my work has moved through a process of creating visual or physical layers. Now my paintings have become a representation of life with numerous layers, each painted and partially removed as if worn away with time, leaving ghostly impressions through a polished smooth surface, of what was once there. I tend to use a systems approach to my work and often develop a related series of surfaces onto which I then interject marks, threads and a variety of other materials to create the finished pieces.
Susan Greenaway My work is inspired by an interest in contemporary architecture including buildings such as Lloyds of London and the Experian Landmark or ‘Blue Cube’ building in Nottingham. The concept of managed transparency led to an investigation of a range of construction materials resulting in an absolute focus on the potential and properties of Perspex. The exhibits are the result of experimentation with building, lighting and manipulating of small Perspex maquettes. The original intention was to produce these on a larger scale but the process of recording resulted in a very different journey. The combination of the inherent properties of Perspex reflection, absorption, refraction and diffusion with light, movement and photography resulted in these models transforming in terms of scale, structure and perspective. The ethereal and futuristic images contrast sharply with the original small, solid and linear structures. Through the use of photography a basic, functional material becomes a spectral and imponderable image. Apart from cropping, rotating and repositioning there has been no manipulation of these images. Tracey Kershaw My work explores notions of change. I am interested in the details and familiarity of everyday events, and focus on unremarkable, personal experiences to articulate both the extraordinary and the momentous. My maternal subjectivity has been central to my art practice. The profound and often overwhelming emotions that my motherhood brings have driven me to engage with other interrelated subjects such as fertility, ageing and the fragility of time passing. My current concerns centre on the changing relationship between my son and myself, and in particular on issues of loss. Mundane and easily overlooked moments provide rich memories, documenting ephem eral changes, and through which I aim to communicate a true and insightful sense of my relationship with my son. ‘Nonevents’ of our daily life brushing his hair, collecting fallen peas from his plate or cutting his nails speak of a particular time, but represent the more fundamental changes that will inevitably occurs as he grows older. I work with video, photography, audio and text to explore the impermanence of each phase of my maternal relationship, and the irreversibility of change and forward motion. I use video footage to capture moments within a physical movement, drawing attention to the intricacies and complexities of the interactions. I aim to create a sense of intimacy, echoing the intensity of the maternal gaze. Reversing conventional psychoanalytical theory that favours the child’s viewpoint (with the mother as object), my intention is to convey my maternal subjective view. Unexcep tional incidents from my son’s life are seen from my perspective as mother and observer, and presented as an epiphany, a signifier of the real. As mementos of growth and change, quotidian events represent the poignancy of a weakening bond and my resulting feelings of loss and separation.
Tracey Kershaw, still from video ‘Cutting His Nails’ Founded in 2009, Tarpey Gallery maintains an ambitious program of exhibitions by estab lished and emerging artists. The gallery represents artists from the region at earlier stages in their career as well as practitioners with international reputations. For further information, press enquiries and images please contact Luke Tarpey : info@tarpeygallery.com / 0777 240 4293