Rachel Goodyear
dal 23/4/2009 al 22/5/2009
Segnalato da
23/4/2009
Rachel Goodyear
Houldsworth Gallery, London
The converging ends were misaligned. Just as the folk of fairytale and the underground realm lured humankind into eternal diabolical dances, the intimate detail of these drawings is intended to draw the viewer into a world that reflects our own whilst presenting a distorted image of some very unsettling relationships.
Pippy Houldsworth is delighted to present the first solo exhibition in London of new drawings by talented artist Rachel Goodyear. Rachel was selected last year by Art Review magazine as one of only ten Future Greats and has fast become a young favourite of museum directors, curators and collectors worldwide with her witty, ingenious and intricately rendered pencil and watercolour drawings.
The title of the exhibition ‘the converging ends were misaligned’ is a fragment of conversation taken out of context to suggest something not quite right in well made plans, or a sense of derailment where everything (in the world Goodyear creates) now sits in uncomfortable or precarious positions. Just as the folk of fairytale and the underground realm lured humankind into eternal diabolical dances, the intimate detail of these drawings is intended to draw the viewer into a world that reflects our own whilst presenting a distorted image of some very unsettling relationships. The balance could tip either way; playful games get out of hand, fun descends into violence, tenderness turns to deceit, and a fine line is drawn between pain and ecstasy.
However these images are read, each character seems to be trapped in a daze, a state of hypnosis or somnambulism, seemingly moving through the world in a state of dogged resignation. The drawings can be experienced as individual snapshots of the world the artist creates, or may leave us feeling that we have stumbled upon a strange community just beyond the borders of our own existence where our own social etiquettes no longer apply.
As Rachel Goodyear said herself in an extract to accompany her work selected for The Drawing Book by Tania Kovats. “I knew a man who was prone to verbal outbursts. Our paths crossed on numerous occasions and he always offered me an insight into life, sex and death as he interpreted it. He was well aware of the way his mind dealt with information – all input would be processed at once, congealing it into a disjointed amalgamation of fact and fiction. My approach to drawing is not too dissimilar.”
Goodyear has previously exhibited in Post Notes, at the ICA, London; Drawing Links The Drawing Room, London; On that which remains Nassauischer Kunstverien, Weisbaden, Germany; The Unheimlich Leeds Metropolitan University and the Nunnery, London; The Golden Record Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; Rotate Contemporary Art Society, London; Made Up Tate Liverpool; The Intertwining Line: Drawing as Subversive Art Cornerhouse, Manchester; and they never run, they only call at The International 3, Manchester. Rachel Goodyear: Cats, Cold, Hunger and the Hostility of Birds, published by Aye-Aye Books is available from the gallery or from Amazon.
Morgan Falconer, New York writer and critic, has written a text for the leaflet to accompany this exhibition. Please see text under Goodyear - Texts.
Opening Friday 24 April, 6.00-8.30
Houldsworth Gallery
50 Pall Mall Deposit, 124-128 Barlby Road - London
Free admission