Stop PressWoman to Woman Vivienne Sole & Jane Tudge A dialogue between two artist friends who let us in on their individual, but inextricably linked, respeonses to their loves, losses and memories. Also showing 'Seeking Asylum' by Maz Winstanley We are open Tuesdays to Fridays, 9.30am to 4.30pm and Saturdays, 10.00am to 1.00pm We can also open at other times by arrangement, please call 01432 378436. Don't forget to bring your framing in too! |
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applestoregallery@btinternet.com | www.applestoregallery.co.uk |
Woman to Woman
From time to time we like to mount an exhibition which focuses on a specific aspect of our lives and how artists interpret and incorporate ideas into their creative expressions. Having previously looked at subjects as wide ranging as 'Alzheimers' and 'Mind Shadow', Vivienne Sole and Jane Tudge now turn their attentions to some of their most intimate and personal expressions of loves, losses and memories. Works include artists' books, wax & felt sculpture and images conjured from appropriated materials.
Jane Tudge writes of the exhibition:
"As the two of us have developed our artistic practices and acted as critical sounding boards, so our friendship has developed. This show is a celebration of that and an acknowledgement of us as two individuals and our support for each other.
We are women. We talk. We do that in the usual way, and we do that through our artistic practices. This is our conversation. It isn't linear. It didn't start with one thing and lead to another and then another. It is tangential, circuitous, circular, overlapping.
What do we talk about?
Being mothers, being women, being the keepers of family memories, being emotional supporters, being us.
Maybe it's because my first job was in the county Record Office that my interest in memory started. Certainly it influenced my regarding everything, from the banal to the significant as equally suitable for preservation. Or because I am aware of blips in my own recollection, or springs from my research into how this fragile power, memory works. Whatever the cause, an investigation into memory is at the heart of my practice. Anyway, I often choose to use wax as a medium, because of its contrary connotations of preservation and jeopardy (leave it next to a fire and it will melt).
Viv's quiet palette continues whatever her chosen medium – paper, felted wool, found objects – subtly expressing sometimes high emotion. She is my wisewoman, and her understanding and clear-sightedness into the human condition is evidenced in her work."
The exhibition is accompanied by paintings and drawings of Asylum Seekers by Maz Winstanley from Ebbw Vale.
Some of the work is being shown as part of an ongoing programme of complementary exhibitions at Castle House Hotel, Castle Street, Hereford which visitors are welcome to go along and see.
"Viv's quiet palette continues whatever her chosen medium – paper, felted wool, found objects – subtly expressing sometimes high emotion. She is my wisewoman, and her understanding and clear-sightedness into the human condition is evidenced in her work.
So you will see baby socks – the tiniest and strongest evocation of babyhood, blankets and comforters for and about babies and also for those undergoing the last unspoken taboo – menopause. Colours of a Certain Age is a set of books, stitched like samplers spelling out the word menopause in pink flushing to red, in silver, black, and in invisible thread. Three other sculptural bookworks depict the menopause as books with the sharpest, blackest nails sticking out (don't touch – prickly), or with an empty, gaping hole, or melting.
In The ties that bind series V uses her own, her daughter's, and her grand-daughter's hair to bind a soft, warm house, a tiny baby foot, a cocooning nest whereas I have left the ties invisible between tiny parents and children.
We have stitched. When I was ill V lent me a CD about Louise Bourgeois, and when I was finally able to move a bit and could hold a needle I stitched a quote from that film – my emotions are bothersome . . . I have preserved that same cloth in wax, as well as one of V's traycloths, a tablecloth (double exposure – a metaphor for this two handed exhibition) and a lace handkerchief. V's soft as soft sock blanket , soul warmer, is a beautiful subversion of a patchwork quilt, while her other large felt blanket, motherlove is at once comforting and shocking with its definitions of being born on the wrong side of the blanket.
The handkerchief has become a leitmotif for the exhibition. In the old mirror reflects everything V has photographs of three handkerchiefs, which in some way question the attitude of care homes to the elderly, and I have made translations into wax sculptures in my emotions are too big for me, each handkerchief the same but different alluding to how emotions can be so different.
News of my nephew posted to Afghanistan prompted V to make sculptural and book works. Her soft comforting felted wool made into haunting miniature body bags, and words taken from emails realised into elegantly simple books.
Emotions and their bothersomeness is the subject of two more bookworks – The twelve o'clock tales and amazing maze"
MAZ WINSTANLEY
Maz Winstanley was born in Brighton in 1947 and has lived in South Wales since 1982. During her time in Wales she completed a BA Hons. Degree in Humanities and in 1999-2001 attended Hereford College of Art and Design, taking an Advanced BTEC Diploma in Fine Art.
Since that time, she has been working in various media producing large charcoal drawings and pastel work, together with some lino-cut printing. Recently, she has been working in oil but continues with the charcoal work.
Whatever the medium, her work is figurative and largely narrative, being particularly interested in animated interactions between people.
The print work has ranged from a series relating to the Ebbw Vale steel works, to a series based on William Blake's poems and aphorisms.
She has previously shown work in Hereford, Abergaveny, Penarth, Cardiff and Abertillery.
This exhibition will be followed from 4th June by 'A Retrospective View' of paintings by Michael B Edwards which will also feature vibrant Forest of Dean landscapes by Doug Eaton, drawings, collages & paintings by Mariette Voke and Ceramics by Nigel Lambert.
The Apple store gallery is located at 3 bridge street Hereford, HR4 9DF and is open on Tuesdays to Fridays at 9:30am to 4:30pm and Saturdays 10:00am to 1:00pm.
We have a catalogue of work by Lindsey Harris available to view online: Click here to view Lindsey's catalogue
We are located in Bridge Street, Hereford, which is just north of the Old Bridge over the River Wye, between there and Hereford Cathedral. There is one hour's on-street parking in front of the Gallery and car parks just over the river about five minutes walk away.
For further information or to add your details to our mailing list, please contact us at applestoregallery@btinternet.com.
We look forward to welcoming you.
Apple Store Gallery
3 Bridge Street, Hereford, Herefordshire, HR4 9DF
Tel: 01432 378 436
Email: applestoregallery@btinternet.com