Two Exhibitions
dal 28/5/2009 al 3/7/2009
Segnalato da
28/5/2009
Two Exhibitions
Gimpel Fils, London
Michelle Dovey has been painting trees and landscapes for several years. In this new body of work she presents a series of landscape scenes that have been created from memory and which do not depict specific places. littlewhitehead utilise strategies of humour, fantasy and desire mixed with fear and anxiety in such a way as to make their sculptures and installations attractive and repellent simultaneously.
Michelle Dovey has been painting trees and landscapes for several years. In this new
body of work she presents a series of landscape scenes that have been created from
memory and which do not depict specific places. In previous work, Dovey explored the
use of trees in the work of eighteenth century painters such as George Stubbs, JMW
Turner, and Antoine Watteau. If these new fictional landscapes are reminiscent of
earlier artistic traditions it is because Dovey has internalized a formal vocabulary
and is now using it to create paintings that express deeply personal, yet universal
emotions.
In her work Dovey is attempting to realise an image that comes from a moment of
stillness. The wet, thinned oil paint provides a clue to its intuitive application
in energetic strokes and daubs. Pathways and horizons feature heavily in these
works. Below a swirling sky, full of heavy pink clouds, a discrete muddy path leads
to a valley and a hill beyond. Trying to make sense of the seemingly chaotic world
around us, the path through the landscape transforms into a passage through full and
varied emotional situations. It is only after the painting has been completed that
Dovey is able to reflect on its underlying emotional content.
As portraits of a day, these imaginary trees and landscapes can be understood as
vehicles for conveying a particular frame of mind at a particular time. A cluster of
skinny grey trees in one painting might be interpreted as conveying a sense of
loneliness or despair, while the acid green grass and soft pink clouds in another
canvas seem hopeful. Collectively, Dovey's works recall sensations experienced
throughout the everyday.
Born in Oxford, Michelle Dovey was raised in New Zealand and received her Masters at
the School of Visual Arts, New York in 1998. She has exhibited at E31 Gallery,
Athens (2005) and OneTwentyGallery, Gent (2007). Her first solo exhibition was held
at Gimpel Fils in 2006 and she lives and works in London.
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littlewhitehead
playing dog
A tall, pear-shaped man stands facing a wall. He is dressed head to toe in an old,
matted, novelty dog costume. The man's papier-mâché mask lies on the floor next to
his feet as he repeatedly bangs his head against the wall. Looking at the man, we
are invited to ask why he is wearing the creepy costume and perhaps more
importantly, why is he banging his head against the wall? As a scene of desperation
or depression, or both, are we prolonging his suffering through our act of watching?
This tension between the active and passive role of the viewer is central to the
work of littlewhitehead.
littlewhitehead utilise strategies of humour, fantasy and desire mixed with fear and
anxiety in such a way as to make their sculptures and installations attractive and
repellent simultaneously. Exploring the nature of voyeurism their work reminds us
that witnessing is not neutral or impassive. Three white canvases are empty but for
a small peephole in the middle of each. In a gesture that echoes Marcel Duchamp's
Etant donnés, we are invited to look through the peephole lens in order to see the
scene behind the painting. In a mixing of public and private space, vision and
violation converge.
littlewhitehead seeks to play in the grey zone between reality and unreality. By
presenting sculptural installations that combine realism and theatricality, they
examine the relationship between the realisation of a fiction and the
fictionalisation of the real. By adopting a very accessible, tabloid visual
vernacular their work appeals to the viewers' sense of intrigue and makes us
collaborators; Much is left unsaid and we are encouraged to construct our own
stories and narratives as a means of negotiating the often macabre subject matter.
littlewhitehead (b 2005) is an artistic entity comprising Craig Little and Blake
Whitehead. littlewhitehead have exhibited in Bloomberg's New Contemporaries, London,
Dec 2008 - Jan 2009 and Conjunction 08, Stoke-on-Trent, November 2008 and will be
exhibiting at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, in June 2009. littlewhitehead was
awarded a Scottish Arts Council Visual Arts Development Award in 2008.
Image: Michelle Dovey
Opening may 29th 2009
Gimpel Fils
30 Davies Street - London
Gallery opening hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 4pm
Free admission