Unstable Ground considers how drawing methods are related to experiences of autobiographical memory. The exhibition features new work from a number of artists who explore memory within their work, including Turner Prize nominee, George Shaw, Laura Oldfield Ford, who was recently included in Ruin Lust at Tate Britain, and Comics Unmasked at the British Library, Lisa Wilkens who exhibited in Paper at Saatchi Gallery.
Unstable Ground is a group show that explores the perplexing, the fragile, the experiential, and the direct relationship between the paper surface and the representation and manifestation of memory. Focussing on the autobiographical memory of each artist, their works create an emotional dialogue between place, drawing methods, and the mediation between vision, hand, and brain.
The artists presented in Unstable Ground offer insights and glimpses into these important, discursive processes. They each have a relationship with the concept of Unstable Ground in a variety of ways, from Stephen Walter and Laura Oldfield Ford’s urban mappings, revealing the hidden and complex political and poetic narratives of human life, to Annabel Dover and Lisa Wilkens’s ‘drawn out’ relationship with the memories of personal objects and places. This is revealed in the works on many levels. The image that is immediately presented in all these works is the first of many layers. Unstable Ground attempts to dig deeper, present and open up a dialogue with seams of artistic, social and political signifiers.
Unstable Ground is a group show that explores the perplexing, the fragile, the experiential, and the direct relationship between the paper surface and the representation and manifestation of memory. Focussing on the autobiographical memory of each artist, their works create an emotional dialogue between place, drawing methods, and the mediation between vision, hand, and brain.
The artists presented in Unstable Ground offer insights and glimpses into these important, discursive processes. They each have a relationship with the concept of Unstable Ground in a variety of ways, from Stephen Walter and Laura Oldfield Ford’s urban mappings, revealing the hidden and complex political and poetic narratives of human life, to Annabel Dover and Lisa Wilkens’s ‘drawn out’ relationship with the memories of personal objects and places. This is revealed in the works on many levels. The image that is immediately presented in all these works is the first of many layers. Unstable Ground attempts to dig deeper, present and open up a dialogue with seams of artistic, social and political signifiers.
Annabel Dover
Kangaroo Tape Measure
Pencil Crayon on Paper
51 x 35cm (67x50cm framed)
2012
Pencil Crayon on Paper
51 x 35cm (67x50cm framed)
2012
St. Anthony & Putti
Silverpoint on gesso
18 cm x 25 cm (24 x 30 cm framed)
2010
Silverpoint on gesso
18 cm x 25 cm (24 x 30 cm framed)
2010
Silver Rattle
Silverpoint on gesso
18 cm x 25 cm (24 x 30 cm framed)
2010
Silverpoint on gesso
18 cm x 25 cm (24 x 30 cm framed)
2010
Reece Jones
Gaia
Charcoal & Polymer Varnish on Paper
44 x 48cm
2014
Charcoal & Polymer Varnish on Paper
44 x 48cm
2014
Gaia III
Charcoal & Polymer Varnish on Paper
51 x 44cm
2014
Charcoal & Polymer Varnish on Paper
51 x 44cm
2014
Gaia II
Charcoal & Polymer Varnish on Paper
51 x 44cm
2014
Charcoal & Polymer Varnish on Paper
51 x 44cm
2014
David Miles
18th
Pencil, Ink on Paper
30 x 23cm
2014
Pencil, Ink on Paper
30 x 23cm
2014
Laura Oldfield-Ford
Bridge
Biro on Paper
42 x 29cm
2014
Biro on Paper
42 x 29cm
2014
Happy Valley
Biro on Paper
42 x 29cm
2014
Biro on Paper
42 x 29cm
2014
George Shaw
Black Magic
one colour lithograph on Fabriano Tiepolo
21 x 29cm
edition of 100
2014
one colour lithograph on Fabriano Tiepolo
21 x 29cm
edition of 100
2014
Stephen Walter
Untitled Map
Graphite on Paper,
50.7 X 54.8cm
2014
Graphite on Paper,
50.7 X 54.8cm
2014
Lisa Wilkens
What will it mean to us later on?
What will we make of it after it’s done?
Chinese Ink on Paper
29 x 21cm
2014
What will we make of it after it’s done?
Chinese Ink on Paper
29 x 21cm
2014
Simon Woolham
Nan
Biro on Paper
29 x 42cm
2013
Biro on Paper
29 x 42cm
2013
Virtual Memory Walks
As part of the process of creating this exhibition, Simon Woollham undertook a virtual memory walk with each artist. Using Google Earth and Skype, and starting at the home where the artist grew up, Woolham journeyed through time and space, guided by the memories that are drawn out and unfold. This online experience, utilised as a curatorial tool with the artists and presented as a series of videos, is an integral part of the presentation of the exhibition, unravelling and laying bare the autobiographical and artistic details around why these artists are working in a particular way. The process of the walk captures how these artists might dialogue and use memory as a catalyst for their work.
Installation Views
