Short Supply - Material Concerns

Exhibition dates: 9 November – 14 December 2019
Private View: Thursday 7 November 2019, 6-9pm
For this exhibition at PAPER, Short Supply present the work of both directors, Mollie Balshaw and Rebekah Beasley. Material Concerns explores the materiality of media as a starting point for explorations of queer identity. The concept that gender is a construct and sexuality is ever-fluid is examined literally through process; a heavy impasto mark, a precision collage or a unified coat of spray paint. These techniques and processes manipulate the perceived boundaries of their medium, expressing a need to rebel, rearrange and take inspiration from reality and fiction in the re-calling of the LGBT+ experience. With the barrage of skepticism and negativity that queer individuals are known to face through the regular invalidation of their own identities - as if their existence is up for debate - it feels appropriate to return to something physical, of substance, with a presence that cannot be denied. These works incorporate paper in disparate ways; Balshaw’s approach presents a controlled chaos, materials pushed to the limits of their capacity with an intentional exploitation of chance. Beasley’s works take the opposite approach; harsh lines and appropriated imagery that emphasise the idea that all material, and by extension all narrative context, is up for interpretation and can be taken into one’s own hands. Material grants the artist control.

Balshaw’s practice makes use of the capabilities of painting within an expanded field, exploring the painting as an object rather than an image, and challenging restrictive structures often associated with painting practice. They are interested in deconstruction as reconstruction, questioning the very concept of the structures and surfaces on which paintings exist, and in which painting as a subject exists. Beasley’s work draws heavily upon conflicting themes: the feminine and the masculine; art and craft; the anima and the animus; the white cube gallery and the domestic sphere of the home. Gender and queerness is an overarching theme within her work. As a proudly gay cis woman, she has embraced the stereotypes and connotations associated with these social groups addressing this within her practice.
Installation Views
Artwork

Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #1
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #2
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #3
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #4
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #5
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #6
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #7
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Mollie Balshaw
Painting Sandwich #8
Cardboard, Filler and Acrylic
25 x 15 cm
2019
£125
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Rebekah Jaye Beasley
Narrative #1
Screen print and Collage with Vintage Photographs
20 x 20 cm
2019
£75
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Rebekah Jaye Beasley
Narrative #2
Screen print and Collage with Vintage Photographs
20 x 20 cm
2019
£75
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Rebekah Jaye Beasley
Narrative #3
Screen print and Collage with Vintage Photographs
20 x 20 cm
2019
£75
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Rebekah Jaye Beasley
Narrative #4
Screen print and Collage with Vintage Photographs
20 x 20 cm
2019
£75
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Rebekah Jaye Beasley
Narrative #5
Screen print and Collage with Vintage Photographs
20 x 20 cm
2019
£75
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About Short Supply
Short Supply is an artist-led initiative which provides opportunities for artists and creatives in the North, and seeks to engage the wider community with contemporary art. Mollie Balshaw is an artist based at Islington Mill in Salford, and is a Gallery Assistant at AIR Gallery in Altrincham. They studied BA Fine Art (First Class Honours) at the University of Salford from 2016 - 2019. Recently they were awarded a 12-month Graduate Scholarship with the University of Salford and Castlefield Gallery, and were also shortlisted for the Create Student Awards 2019 in the Art & Design category. Exhibitions include the Neo Art Prize 2019, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, PS Mirabel Painting Prize 2019, PS Mirabel and the AIR Open 2019, AIR Gallery. Rebekah Beasley is an artist and Gallery Assistant based at A4 Studios and working for AIR Gallery in Altrincham. She studied BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of Salford from 2016 - 2019. Exhibitions include Rebekah Beasley and James Hall, GK Gallery, The Hepworth Print Fair, The Hepworth Wakefield and the 20:20 Print Exchange 2018 which toured at Neo Gallery, Bolton, Highland Print Studio, Inverness, Blackstack Studio, Kilkenny and The Moscow Studio, Moscow.