MIGRATIONS

[ezcol_1half]Migrations
Tracey Bush, Rachael Clewlow, Julie Cockburn,
Déirdre Kelly & Hormazd Narielwalla

2 February – 3 March 2017

Migrations explores themes of location, migration, and diaspora through an installation of mixed-media works that include drawing, book art and collage. The migratory aspect of ideas and material is expressed in images and artists’ books that re-purpose data from various found sources in order to construct new visual and metaphorical narratives.

Tracey Bush’s plant studies and cut paper assemblages reference traditions of botanicals and herbariums that stretch back to the Middle Ages. Combining scientifically-accurate specimen drawings with collaged elements from consumer packing, Bush articulates an entirely contemporary comment upon man’s increasingly fragile relationship with Nature.

Rachael Clewlow documents with meticulous attention the ways in which she inhabits the landscape: recording routes she takes, landmarks she observes, the times and dates of her journeys. Translating information from the small ‘statistical diaries’ she keeps, Clewlow creates intricately layered visual images – abstract forms that reflect the patterns of her own mobility.

Julie Cockburn introduces new elements to found images by collaging, stitching or over-painting the original. Working with source material that includes reproductions of historical portraits, mid-twentieth-century advertising photography, and printed book pages, her interventions generate compelling dialogues about time and identity.

Déirdre Kelly’s collaged nautical charts and altered maps highlight the plight of contemporary migrants. Of Irish descent and based in Venice, Kelly’s work has often dwelt on ideas of location and dislocation. Wonder Atlas – Sicily 2012 traces the fraught sea journeys taken by refugees towards Italy. By representing people in the image as beans, Kelly makes a wry comment on how migrants are seen only as financial ‘units’ to their traffickers.

Hormazd Narielwalla uses found materials to create works that explore the body and cultural identity. The Lost Gardens series originate in the memory of a rose garden in his childhood home of Pune, India, and are worked over the templates of antique French suit patterns. Collaged elements read as geometric mazes and pathways, inviting thoughts about involuntarily scattered populations who take their trades with them to new countries.

The exhibition will launch two new limited edition artist’s books:
Dusk by Tracey Bush, and Lost Gardens by Hormazd Narielwalla.

Migrations interview on London Live TV

Reviewed in Kolaj

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