GOTHIC PLEASURES
at the Eagle Gallery
Arabel Rosillo de Blas, Elaine Brown, Denise de Cordova,
Harriet Mena Hill, Sarah Sparkes, Carolyn Thompson
19 May – 11 June 2016 Gothic Pleasures brings together six artists whose work explores undercurrents of psychological transformation. The exhibition encompasses a wide variety of media from painting, sculpture, print and ceramic, to delicate lace pattern templates embroidered with human hair and a pocket knife decorated with seed pearls. The works share a meticulous attention to the craft of making, in order to first entice and then reveal their more complex themes.Arabel Rosillo de Blas acknowledges her Spanish origins in the tiny Grandmother’s Pocket Knife – a working penknife with a blade fashioned from silver filigree. Elaine Brown’s haunting oils on panel – the Blue series, invest simple objects the artist found around her home with darker, poignant meaning. Denise de Cordova’s sculpture Akka – at first glance a grey boulder, reveals the delicately painted face of a girl trapped within its form. Harriet Mena Hill’s intricate landscapes explore the imagined architectures of Calvino’s Invisible Cities – a recent drawing displayed within a lightbox casting eerie shadows on the conjectured forms. Sarah Sparkes painting series NEVER AFRAID is derived from an oral history, passed on to the artist by her mother and grandmother: a myth of giants and the devil embedded within a village from her ancestors locale. Carolyn Thompson’s recent works Night Terrors, Havisham and The Broken Heart, re-form and re-write classic Gothic texts, including Dracula and Great Expectations.
Harriet Mena Hill, Sarah Sparkes, Carolyn Thompson
19 May – 11 June 2016 Gothic Pleasures brings together six artists whose work explores undercurrents of psychological transformation. The exhibition encompasses a wide variety of media from painting, sculpture, print and ceramic, to delicate lace pattern templates embroidered with human hair and a pocket knife decorated with seed pearls. The works share a meticulous attention to the craft of making, in order to first entice and then reveal their more complex themes.Arabel Rosillo de Blas acknowledges her Spanish origins in the tiny Grandmother’s Pocket Knife – a working penknife with a blade fashioned from silver filigree. Elaine Brown’s haunting oils on panel – the Blue series, invest simple objects the artist found around her home with darker, poignant meaning. Denise de Cordova’s sculpture Akka – at first glance a grey boulder, reveals the delicately painted face of a girl trapped within its form. Harriet Mena Hill’s intricate landscapes explore the imagined architectures of Calvino’s Invisible Cities – a recent drawing displayed within a lightbox casting eerie shadows on the conjectured forms. Sarah Sparkes painting series NEVER AFRAID is derived from an oral history, passed on to the artist by her mother and grandmother: a myth of giants and the devil embedded within a village from her ancestors locale. Carolyn Thompson’s recent works Night Terrors, Havisham and The Broken Heart, re-form and re-write classic Gothic texts, including Dracula and Great Expectations.
GOTHIC PLEASURES review by Sarah Swinny
Memory, the subconscious, hidden threats and hauntings underlie Gothic Pleasures, an exhibition currently showing at the Eagle Gallery, London. It’s your last chance to see this exciting and resonant show which closes this Saturday (11th June 2016).
The show brings together six artists exhibiting a variety of media including painting, sculpture, print and ceramics.
In Grandmother’s Pocket Knife, by Arabel Rosillo de Blas, a penknife with a handle inset with tiny pearls, marries fragility with a suggestion of violence with its’ working blade of intricate lace-like silverwork.
Sarah Swinny
http://wearewia.com WOMEN IN ART
http://wearewia.com/stage/portfolio/gothic-pleasures/