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View Art Gallery presents the group show
Out of the Dark
December 2 - January 15, 2023
View Art Gallery 159 Hotwell Road Bristol BS8 4RY United Kingdom
info@viewartgallery.co.uk
MICHELLE DASH RODGER WILLIAMS
MATT HARDMAN FRAN WILLIAMS CAROLINE WATSON
OUT OF THE DARK
OUT OF THE DARK is a group exhibition that explores how we use imagination and creativity to express or escape from uncomfortable memories and fears. The artists show some revealing sculptures and paintings that are visually impactful and carry a deep narrative, explicit or hidden.
Gallery owner, Nick Waugh describes the work as, “beautifully disturbing and strangely engaging. The exhibition may evoke feelings that have been locked away. The artists take us into their darkest dreams, fantastical places and imaginations that some dare not explore”.
In this collection, the artists deal with depression, abuse, identity, addiction and grief. Drawing from personal experience and observation, sometimes subconsciously, the artists ‘act out’ emotions using puppetry, toys, childhood scenes, expressive figures and ethereal beings. At first glance some of the imagery can appear sinister, even horrific, depending on how much personal connection we may have. We may also see beauty, playfulness and humour. There is ambiguity in many of the characters’ mental state. Are they screaming with joy or fear? Are they looking back at us in the same we we are observing them? We can see the artwork in different ways, depending on our own state of mind and how much we enable personal reflection.
Out of darkness we may see our fears extended into the present, we may be in a transition to a brighter future or we may rejoice in the light of what we have become.
Michelle Dash
Michelle Dash is a creator of characters that are influenced by childhood escapism and fantasy. The people, animals and hybrids are ambiguous in gender, identity and personality. As we gaze at each figure or scene, it is possible to feel sad, joyous and disturbed all at once. The ambiguity of an intense narrative allows for a new personal journey with every view, either through personal connection or observing others.
There is considerable technical expertise used to create detailed sculptures and paintings of planned uncomfortable distortion. The palette is subdued in tone but broad in hue, seemingly from another time and place. The issues faced by these wonderful creatures are very much current in today’s world, translated from acute observation and vivid imagination. Some of the work reflects emotional darkness while others show an optimism in the aparent comfort and confidence in who they are.
Sculptures
Paintings
Lady With Hyena, Enthroned mixed media, 68 x 28 x 21 cm
Bird House mixed media, 32 x 26 x 16 cm
Three Graces mixed media, 58 x 45 x 12 cm
Heavenly, Earthly, Imperial Choir mixed media, 68 x 31 x 31 cm
Saturday Afternoon oil on board and fabric, rusted metal, 70 x 80 cm
The Playful Couple oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm
Morningn Song (Crow Charmer) mixed media, 82 x 62 cm
My Lady’s Chamber acrylic on board, 55 x 122 cm
Rodger Williams
Rodger Williams is a serial life drawer, ”if I don’t draw, I go crazy, it’s an essential part of retaining my sanity”. From an early career as an art director in an indulgent advertising sector, Williams uses art to battle residual demons from a toxic lifestyle. He predominantly satisfies the need to create from live figurative sketching, some of which morph into large scale paintings. The final product is an interesting blend of block painting and expressive figures, which are simultaneously aesthetically appealing and uncomfortable. There is ambiguity in the lines that form the body, offering alternative imagery in the space around them. Beauty meets darkness in varying degrees in each painting, sometimes torturous, often unnatural, always impactful.
The paintings take us through a journey of transition through varying emotional states. Some of the poses reflect entrapment and contortion, showing discomfort and pain. In others we can observe a reaching out and the feel of release when escape is made. There is also contentment and peace as the journey is apparently complete. We are left to ponder whether there is a single sequence or an ongoing cycle of struggle to retain a state of mind? In this collection, we can reflect on our personal journeys and where we are in our state of transition ‘out of the dark’.
Contortion, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm
Reaching, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm
Trapped, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Peaceful, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Contemplation, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm
Resolution, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm
Matt Hardman
“My paintings explore the complex relationships which develop between different personalities over time; a preoccupation with our own personal experience of reality and the feeling of alienation this sometimes causes. The subjects recall the raw emotional states of childhood which we learn to mask later in life.
I draw from my own direct experiences but reshuffle and re-present them in an attempt to recapture the atmosphere of a remembered event or situation and the intensity of the feeling around it. My hope is that the work conveys some of the anxieties and frustrations that are part of the human condition. Humour, too, is often in the work - life being, at least in part, ridiculous.”
These paintings are high on impact in every sense. The bold palette and use of multiple faces draw the viewer into the narrative. We are asked to consder the traumas of childhood that result in this expression of dark imagined scenes. Often, a painting that tells an uncomfortable story has an immediate visual appeal that is shortly followed by a darkness that emerges after closer inspection. Hardman’s paintings have the ability to do the reverse. A typical initial reaction may shock, horror, sadness, sympathy. After spending time with the painting we can see beyond the darkness a playfullness, humour and even endearment. This confused emotional play is something that never resolves and perhaps reflects our own changing state of mind each time we look.
Feedback oil on panel, 61 x 61 cm
The Leaver oil on panel, 61 x 61 cm
Sail oil on panel, 79 x 61 cm
Fran Williams
Evocative silhoutted figures appear from the depth of Fran’s oil paintings. The strength of tones, layers of texture and free use of brush marks create a visual backdrop that is both soothing and stimulating. Similarly, the figures, often angelic, have an ambiguity in their feeling. Fran’s paintings offer different interpretations and stimulate multiple emotional responses. We may feel sadness, abandoned joy, torment, longing or desperation.
The sense of mystique draws us in to the paintings and questions our understanding of the work and maybe our own feelings.
Fran paints from her own imagery, thoughts and memories as a starting point. Early in the process she becomes a conduit for the creative process and her practice becomes ‘other worldly’ as she gives up control. Awakening from her trance-like state, she applies finishing touches to add her final interpretation to a beautiful piece of art that becomes its own entity.
The Day Before oil, digital, acrylic on aluminium, 80 x 80 cm
The Changing Truth (walk with me) oil and acrylic on panel, 42 x 60 cm
You Know What To Do oil on panel, 20 x 25 cm
We Can’t Stay Here oil on panel, 20 x 25 cm
The Open Choice oil on panel, 20 x 25 cm
Follow Me
oi/resin on panel, 30 x 30 cm (mounted)
Waking Up With Our Eyes Closed oil/resin on panel, 30 x 30 cm (mounted)
All Under These Ever Changing Skies oil/resin on panel, 30 x 30 cm (mounted)
Caroline Watson - puppets
“Inspired by memory, dreams and childhood and coloured by an interest in history, folklore and science, my work explores imagination, and takes me on a journey into the infinite world and weird spaces of the psyche. By using a sort of dream logic, I aim to capture something of the emotive and transient qualities experienced on this adventure.”
Caroline creates both 2D and 3D work, often involving puppetry and other theatrical symbols, sometimes evoking childhood memories, either our own or imagined. We find ourselves sitting somewhere on the spectrum between playful and sinister, usually uncomfortably continually moving back and forth. All is not what it seems in the positions of the characters. We see a puppet lying on a towel in the sun, we playfully imagine him sunbathing but then notice the unusually clenched hands of this soft doll. Similarly, the placement of groups of puppets creates an uneasiness as we consider the possibility that they move and interact long after we have gone.
FIlm Still, oil on canvas, 76 x 51 cm
Trap Door, oil on canvas, 31 x 25cm
Puppet Love, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cm
Butterflies, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
Sunbathing Clown, oil on canvas, 76 x 51 cm
Blue Gods, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
Dark Matters, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
Caroline Watson - Christmas trees
For many, Christmas is a time when stories are told and imaginations are heightened. Traditional fairtales, often involving strange characters from the past, are used to portray good and evil. These characters are brought to life in physical imagery, such as puppets, dolls, and maybe some old decorations that we hang on trees. As children, we are overloaded by high expression in these faces and costumes, aimed at exciting us and also influencing our moral education. When the noise subsides and the lights are dimmed, we remember what we have heard and imagine what we have seen.
In this collection, Caroline provides a conduit to the characters that come ‘out of the dark’ at Christmas. Beautifully painted, aesthetically appealing, these paintings reflect the joy of Christmas and also the disturbing thoughts that rise from our subconscious. Is someone lurking in the shadows? What did I see in the reflection of the bauble? Did I see movement in the tree out of the corner of my sleepy eye?
The more you look, the more you see. How long can you stare into the dark of Christmas?
Celestial Scrying, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm
Fairy Story, oil on canvas, 46 x 61 cm
Doppelganger, oil on canvas, 85 x 60 cm
Dark Star, oil on board, 33 x 41 cm
Dog Star, oil on board, 33 x 41 cm
Hidden Dragon, oil on board, 33 x 41 cm
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