north south divine (online catalogue)
DESCRIPTION
To accompany touring exhibition North South Divine, 2013 at WW Gallery, London Wednesday 3rd April – Saturday 11th May 2013 and Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough 17th May – 20th June 2013. Introductory text by Kate Brindley, Director, mima (http://www.visitmima.com/)TRANSCRIPT
NORTHSOUTHDIVINEWW Gallery, LondonWednesday 3rd April – Saturday 11th May 2013
Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough17th May – 20th June 2013
Alison Wilding, Kate Davis,Annie O’Donnell, Phil Illingworth, Deb Covell, Tony Charles, Boa Swindler, Chiara Williams
Keeping it real | 7
North South Divine | 12
Alison Wilding | 14
Kate Davis | 16
Annie O’Donnell | 18
Phil Illingworth | 20
Deb Covell | 22
Tony Charles | 24
Boa Swindler | 26
Chiara Williams | 28
Although born into a family of cutlery makers and factory
workers, I feel rather dislocated from making and manufacture.
This isolation may be rooted in the generational dominance of
the mystery that is financial services, which makes nothing but
dominates everything and is most demonstrable in this current
government’s deficit reduction programme. Living and working
for the last four years through the deepest recession since the
1930s, in post-industrial Teesside, has provided me with a fresh
appreciation of what it means to make art and to see how the
act of making is still necessary, whilst navigating the current
erosion of basic, and hard-won, equality.
I would suggest that the group of artists who have curated and
exhibit in 'North South Divine' are grappling with some of
these same vexations and contradictions. Issues that
characterise our shared 21st century experience in the UK and
in the art world we chose to inhabit. Their strident
investigation into, and reaction to, the dogmatism of
modernism is laced with warmth, witticism and a self-
deprecating humour which speaks to me. With the conscious
weight of 20th century art theory framing their practice, they
KEEPING IT REAL - In Teesside and East LondonKate Brindley, Director, mima
7
punch out, commenting, humouring, and referencing,
suggesting that we too keep holding up the mirror.
The artists play with the domestic and public space. In art and
civic worlds that still privilege the heroic and virtuoso
associated with the masculine, they question the dominant
narratives of art and society. Boa Swindler takes the stuff of
our covertly misogynist culture she calls ‘everyday sexism’ in
her witty ‘Music for Brainwashing’ series. Through her palette
of seemingly democratic language and found images, she
reveals how we are all colluders in this culture of demeaning.
Annie O’Donnell’s playful, plastic sculptures are the height of
'Teesside Rococo' in their bright improvisation and gaudy
approachability. With reference to her lineage in Billingham,
capital of plastic products, O’Donnell takes the working class
everyday and creates new narratives about herself, where she
is from and what we view as the monumental, so familiar in
urban settings. It's as deeply rooted as Hepworth is in
Yorkshire in the use of the vernacular but it's a new sort of
romanticism, one born- out of the Smiths generation of the
anti-heroic, which is both generic and specific to her roots.
This same jocular, ornate quality can be found in Chiara
Williams work, who is equally as obsessed by objects and
materials, found and manufactured, although here there is a
more overt set of signifiers at play. She uses copper wire from
televisions to form beautifully coloured flowers, with all their
association to the feminine and to the Venus and Aphrodite
myths which still persist in our post feminist world. Her 'Birth
of Venus' lays this bare, with its plump, glistening yolk on
ultramarine pigment. The most precious of painters’ pigments,
8
associated with the virgin’s mantle, sits in a compact, the
everyday device found in handbags. Nothing is too banal to
escape her commentary.
In Kate Davis’s work the sensual and intellectual meet as she
combines manufactured materials with the natural to create
eloquent metaphors. She says ’the stuff of living is not
enough’, and so through her work she searches for other
knowledge. She combines elements that seek to show us a
glimpse of the unseen world, imagined and possibly divine.
Lemons are a recurring motif, their luscious colour and waxy
texture are seductive as is their symbolism of sexual duality.
Lemons make reference to mythology, yet remain reassuringly
everyday. Mirrors too recur as they do with her pupil, Chiara
Williams. They remain a symbol and a challenge for artists to
reflect the world back to the viewer.
Painterly matters are being explored by many of the artists in
this exhibition. Painting, the ultimate modernist language is
challenged and utilised on a number of fronts.
Phil Illingworth's work speaks about abstraction in his use of
organic and manufactured self-referencing objects. Colour is
key here, to delight and to tease us. With Tony Charles, the
surface is all important as part of the subject of his ‘paintings’.
Charles’s years in steel manufacture show a deep passion for
the material he uses. He paints, erases and finishes with a slick
sheen, but don’t be fooled that this is an uncritical affinity with
industrial material. The erasure of a painted composition with a
grinding tool discovers tensions and divisions between practical
purpose and aesthetic decisions. This activity challenges the
artist during the process and questions painting in general,
resulting in a presentation of an industrial process as much as
an abstract visual language.
Alison Wilding is an under-celebrated figure in the current
British art scene, so it is gratifying to see her work represented
in ‘North South Divine‘. Her invitation to show again in
Middlesbrough following her beautiful exhibition as part of the
1996 Cleveland Drawing Biennial, is also a welcome return to an
artist who clearly understands the physicality of choosing and
placing materials together in her powerful autobiographical work
which speaks coherently of duality.
Material and meaning also seem to be as one in Deb Covell’s
paintings, these laboriously worked beautiful objects are
somewhere between paintings and sculptures, with materiality
again being the topic. Covell, as with Davis, is interested in the
ephemeral, she creates spaces to pause and breathe, her
practice ‘attempts to bridge the gap between the ordinary and
the familiar with an often idealistic quest for beauty and purity’. 1
North South Divine is a confident dialogue and collaboration,
between the artists at Platform A and WW Gallery. The stage is
London and Teesside, the players are deliberately cross
generational. Kate Davis and Alison Wilding are invited as
respected, established figures to join the conversation about
unity and divide. Their commonality is the visceral, they return
repeatedly to the manipulation and critique of materials in their
dialogue. Their spirit is independent, generous, mutual and
respectful but with a desire to interrogate. Their style is
subversive, cheeky and smart. Their shared endeavour is how
1 Simon Grennan 'Ply Series' 2011
10
to make meaningful work and in this quest they want to show
us the power structures of art and civic life within which we
operate, to think about what is tacit and covert, to illustrate the
physicality of existence as a site for the imagined and to
demonstrate that artists still have much to say.
" The reason I keep coming back to art is that it does feel like a
place where a central focus is to look at ourselves in our
environments and offer different narratives which will give
different perspectives on what could be, as well as what is." 2
Kate Brindley has been Director of mima (Middlesbrough
Institute of Modern Art) since July 2009. She has 20 years
experience in the visual arts and museums sector with
particular experience in working with 20th century art
collections and capital developments. Previous roles include:
Head of Arts and Museums for Wolverhampton; and Director of
Museums, Galleries and Archives for Bristol City Council. She
is one of only four national advisors for the Paul Hamlyn
Foundation Arts Funding Programme and chairs their new
museums and galleries initiative, “Our Museums”. Kate is Vice
Chair of the AV Festival North East and an Associate of the
Museums Association. www.visitmima.com
2 Kate Gray, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh. ‘Gallery as Community: Art,
Education, Politics’ Editor Marijke Steedman
WW and Platform A are pleased to present North South
Divine, an exhibition of works by eight artists which will be
spread across two cities, in the North and South of the country.
Organised in partnership between the two galleries, the
exhibition will open in London at WW Gallery and tour to
Middlesbrough’s Platform A Gallery.
North South Divine makes obvious reference to the age-old
geographical and traditional social tensions between both ends
of the country. This opposition is brought into focus by the
locations of the two collaborating venues: WW gallery is
situated in Hatton Garden, the diamond district of London and
home to purveyors of expensive decorative finery; while in
contrast, Platform A exists within a North Eastern railway
station, located deep in the heartland of heavy industry.
The artists exhibiting in North South Divine have paid no heed to
this dichotomy in the making of their work, yet all the artworks
in the show possess a fusion of stereotypical bi-polar
characteristics which suggest the gracefully gritty, the silently
strong and the richly real. These are works which complement
or overlap in their processes, materials, concepts and reference
points. Strength meets sensitivity, serious creative practice
meets humour; ultimately, the show expresses the very simple
beauty of shared belief, the unity of ideas and the pleasure of
real conversation.
NORTHSOUTHDIVINE
12
About WW
Established in 2008, WW is one of London’s leading
contemporary artist-run spaces with a reputation for
consistently forward-thinking and innovative projects. Spread
across 1200 square feet of sky-lit rooms, the exhibition space,
shop and lounge occupy the premises of a former jeweller's
workshop in the heart of Hatton Garden, Clerkenwell,
conveniently located between Farringdon and Chancery Lane
tube stations.
About Platform A
Founded as an extension to Platform Art Studios in 2011,
Platform A is a gallery dedicated to innovative developments in
contemporary art through its diverse programme of exhibitions.
Located in the railway station of central Middlesbrough,
Platform A represents emerging and established artists and is
committed to working creatively, exploring new approaches to
arrive at the best outcomes to provide the highest calibre
exhibition programme.
Alison Wilding appears courtesy Karsten Schubert, London
Kate Davis appears courtesy Fred [London]
Phil Illingworth, Boa Swindler & Chiara Williams appear courtesy
WW, London
Annie O’Donnell, Tony Charles & Deb Covell appear courtesy
Platform A, Middlesbrough.
Turner Prize-nominated sculptor Alison Wilding
rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Wilding's
first major solo exhibition was held at the
Serpentine Gallery, London in 1985, her first
international solo show was held at the Museum
of Modern Art, New York in 1987 and a major
retrospective ‘Alison Wilding: Immersion –
Sculpture from Ten Years' was held at the Tate
Gallery, Liverpool in 1991. She was nominated
for the Turner Prize in 1992, received a Henry
Moore Fellowship for The British School at
Rome in 1998 and was elected RA in 1999. Her
public sculpture commissions include the
installation of Ambit, River Wear, Sunderland in
1999. Alison Wilding lives and works in London,
is represented by Karsten Schubert and exhibits
extensively throughout the world in solo and
group shows. Collections include Tate Britain,
British Council, Arts Council, FRAC Pays de la
Loire, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Scottish
National Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery, Henry
Moore Institute.
Alison Wilding
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Alison Wilding
AerielLaser cut mild steel, ink on Japanese paper
2008
Kate Davis is primarily a sculptor whose practice
includes performative lectures, video, drawings,
texts and objects; which are often all brought
together in the same exhibition. Her work
addresses issues of the heart, mortality and
desire.
Kate Davis studied at Hertfordshire College of
Art, Falmouth School of Art and the Slade,
London. She has received numerous awards;
including the Sydney Water Sculpture Prize; the
first Jerwood Drawing Prize; the Sargeant
fellowship at the British School of Rome; the
Stanley Picker Fellowship and the Young Artist
of the Year Award at Whitechapel Gallery,
London. She has taught extensively throughout
the UK and exhibits nationally and internationally.
She is currently represented by Fred [London]
and is a tutor at the Royal College of Art in the
Sculpture Department.
Kate Davis
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Kate Davis
Le vent se lève(The Wind Rises): steel, painted bronze, portfolio of drawings
and texts (1982-2011)
Original 1991, re-made 2003
Annie O’Donnell’s practice forms an idiosyncratic
expression of the ‘hyperlocal’, the baseline
spatial knowledge that each individual uses to
interpret sites and their objects.
Unfolding the links and intersections between
people and their significant places, O’Donnell re-
visions the monumental sculptural paradigm,
demonstrating the potential of alternative place-
making dialogues and strategies, and how they
operate at various scales.
Annie O’Donnell studied Fine Art at Cleveland
College of Art and Design after a career as a
community dance artist. Going on to Newcastle
University to complete an MFA and PhD, her
first solo exhibition, ‘Know Your Place’, recently
formed part of ongoing sculptural research into
place identity. O’Donnell’s work was most
recently shown at SCOPE New York 2013. She
lives and works on Teesside and is represented
by Platform A Gallery.
Annie O’Donnell
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Annie O’Donnell
Black Pyjamas (Seeing Myself in the Dark)Fabric blinds, plastic cable ties, installation view (front)
2012
Phil Illingworth has exhibited nationally and
internationally, including at the 53rd Venice
Biennale with WW Gallery in ‘Travelling Light’.
His work was selected for exhibition in the 2010
John Moores Painting Prize, the UK's most
prestigious painting prize.
Illingworth’s practice is defined by
experimentation. The work tends to be driven by
concept rather than discrete process,
nevertheless the relationship between the
concept, the materials he chooses and the form
of execution is a meticulous and obsessive
consideration. His most recent work explores
stimulus response and conditioning, and the
notion that 'truth' can be arbitrary, or little more
than the outcome of a series of agreed
conventions. His practice includes sculpture,
painting, video, drawing and photography.
He lives and works in England and France and is
represented by WW Gallery.
Phil Illingworth
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Phil Illingworth
The parasite and the hostMDF, primer, gesso, acrylic paints, acryl rod, metal
2013
The visual simplicity of Deb Covell’s work belies
the intense rigor required in making her pared
down refined compositions.
Behind every painting there is a complex
creative process, which is characterised by
scrutiny and alteration. Throughout this process
each step is reconfigured and reexamined with
decisions being made subjectively until the
paintings take on a resolute strength and
insistency of their own.
Through the transformative processes involved
the works arrive at a point where they are
temporally and materially invested objects that
carry the weight and noise of life, yet become
still and silent vehicles for contemplation.
Deb gained her BA (hons) in Fine art from
Liverpool Polytechnic and her MA in Fine art at
the University of East London. Recent
exhibitions include Secret, Royal College of Art,
Station to Station , Scope ,New York and the
54th Venice Biennale. Her work is held in private
and public collections in the UK and abroad
including Paintings in Hospitals and the mima
collection. She currently lives in Saltburn by the
Sea and is represented by Platform A Gallery.
Deb Covell
22
Deb Covell
Unexpected ArrivalEggshell paint on wood support
2013
Recent work by Tony Charles involves the
investigation into the relationship between
sculpture and the two dimensional
representation of objects.
In ‘Un-painting the abstract’ a continuation of
Charles’ investigation into painting concentrates
on a more traditional painting format where,
again, the relationship between brushstrokes
and grind marks explore the idea of objecthood.
This time it is combined with an investigation of
abstraction. These painted objects that again
have been industrially ground back to metal, are
a presentation of an industrial process as much
as an abstract visual language.
Tony gained a BA(Hons) in fine art from Teesside
University and an MA in Fine Art from
Northumbria University. His work was exhibited
at the 54th Venice Biennale and he is the winner
of the Premio Comel 2013 award in Rome.
Tony’s work exists in both public and private
collections internationally, including the mima
collection, the Comel collection Italy, and a
private collection in Singapore.
Tony Charles
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Tony Charles
Unpainting (Fettled Sign)Gloss paint and resin on aluminium
2012
Boa Swindler’s work initiates from issues
surrounding the language (visual & verbal) of
power and persuasion. Her collage and
assemblage practice is informed by the
techniques of the Dadaists and frequently
employs the use of visual puns.
Swindler’s new body of work MFB (Music For
Brainwashing) takes its cue from the 'cheesy
listening' record label MFP (Music For Pleasure)
and examines the not so easy lyrics associated
with 'mellow' music. MFB is a comment on the
misogyny still rampant in our society, especially
given the recent vile attacks on academic Mary
Beard. Swindler also looks at the role of women
as ‘colluders’, or willing participants in ‘everyday
sexism’, reinforcing female insecurities and
hindering female equality.
Swindler trained in printmaking and painting at
CSM, LCC and UEL. Internationally exhibited,
including the 53rd & 54th Venice Biennale, her
work is in private collections in New York, Tokyo,
Zurich and London, including the Factory Art
Collection and the V&A Museum. She is
represented by WW Gallery.
Boa Swindler
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Boa Swindler
MFB 1Wood, aluminium sugar shakers, tassles, voice recording, headphones
2013
Working across sculpture, installation and
painting, Chiara Williams assembles often
unusual combinations of objects and materials to
respond to and represent physical sensations,
desires and frustrations.
Williams is obsessively curious about the
properties and behaviours of materials – and
equally preoccupied by the sensations they
evoke when they interact with one another. The
work is rooted in a geometric tension that plays
on several senses at once and her own
Synesthesia which informs her approach.
Williams’ work is in the Paintings in Hospitals
Collection as well as private collections in the
UK, Italy, Russia, Germany and USA. Her work
has been shown nationally and internationally,
most recently at the 53rd & 54th Venice
Biennales. She studied Fine Art at The Ruskin
School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of
Oxford and Audio Visual Production at London
Metropolitan University. She has worked in
Venice and London lecturing in art history, fine
art, design and media for over ten years, and in
various gallery and museum contexts such as the
Venice Biennale, British Council and Modern Art
Oxford. She set up WW in 2008 with fellow artist
and curator Debra Wilson.
Chiara Williams
28
Chiara Williams
Transverse Venus (Bone)Jesmonite, MDF, enamel paint, paper
2013
NORTH SOUTH DIVINE
Published by WW Gallery and Platform A Gallery
3rd April – Saturday 11th May 2013 WW Gallery34/35 Hatton GardenLondon EC1N 8DX
17th May – 20th June 2013 Platform A Gallery Middlesbrough Railway StationZetland RoadMiddlesbrough TS1 1EG
www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.comwww.platformagallery.net© 2013 WW Gallery. All rights reserved
All images © the artists