Author Archives: Sarah Mayhew

Journeys

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I spent this afternoon packaging up my On The Surface body of work ready to journey south to Oxfordshire (where it was made) as it has been selected for inclusion in a group exhibition at Wilcote Art near Finstock in Oxfordshire. The venue is hardly the Turbine Hall, but I’m really happy and honoured to have been selected to exhibit alongside some really interesting interdisciplinary artists (all female, coincidentally, and all of new to me, bar Nimmi Naidoo, whose work I’ve admired before). Amongst them are Nimmi Naidoo, Katherine Glynne-Jones, Helena Fox, Natasha Solomons, Margaret Godel, and Sue Tucker. The theme of the show is Journeys, though I have no idea what the other work on display will be – looking forward to it!

Finstock’s located between Oxford and Chipping Norton. The exhibition is open on the 21,22, 26, 28, 29, and 30th May from 11am to 6pm, excepting Thursday when it’s open 11am to 8pm. The exhibition has been coordinated to coincide with Oxfordshire Artweeks.

 

Mirrors in art

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A lot of people I know seem to be migrating back to their homeland / escaping to the country right now, as I have recently done. The majority of these people are in their early 30s, as I am, and are making the move for a better quality of life because their circumstances have changed; namely they need more internal and external space and feel the urge to reconnect with nature in some way, and for some reason. 

This has got me thinking about the profound, inescapable effect that the great outdoors has had on so many people that I know in their early life. It’s got me thinking about the intrinsic link between mental and physical wellbeing and landscape, and how we are reflected in the landscape that we hold dear to us, and it is reflected in us in some way. This has got me thinking about the use of mirrors in art… and has prompted me to get me some mirror to experiment with – more on that soon.

Stepping Stones

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A recent walk in the woods where I encountered a pile of felled trees got me thinking about all of the information about history ‘stored’ in those trees – that by looking carefully at a cross section of the trees it’s possible to learn so much… or so little if we are simply to chop the wood up and burn it – our choice. As so many things do, this got me thinking about pathways and the decision making process, about preciousness and disregard. I imagined the felled trees chopped into tree stumps, arranged as they might have appeared in a forest as stepping stones. I imagined them bronzed, immortalised, there to learn from, to admire, to enjoy, to play with/on. Beautiful, clever trees. Nature with all its hidden messages.

Felled Trees
The Giant’s Causeway
Stepping Stones
Swedenborg’s “Circle of Life”
Tree stump
Tree stumps

An invitation for an imaginary spatial journey

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Love this! Love Modus Operandi’s work – all kinds of fantastic public art in unexpected corners of the country. Check this is out…

Artist: Antoni Malinowski
Title of work: Spectral Flip
Client: University of Oxford
Location: Andrew Wiles Building, ROQ, University of Oxford
Year: 2015
Image credit: Valerie Bennett

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Antoni Malinowski commented on his installation:
“Each day the journey of light is registered on the two large walls facing each other in the luminous foyer. To complement and enhance this journey, I began by sensitising this background by applying a reflective paint made with mica ground to a fine pigment. Then on the south facing wall, using light absorbing pigments, I painted in colours related to the warm end of the spectrum – from red to yellow. These light wave subtractive earth pigments have been used by painters for around forty thousand years.

The wall paintings will appear very different from different viewing points and with different light conditions. The colour will oscillate between darkness and light, appearing and disappearing, showing different sides of binary complementarities. One elongated thin line in each painting will contribute to the opening of the pictorial space – an invitation for an imaginary spatial journey.”

www.antonimalinowski.co.uk 

Awesome – literally!