Elaine Brown, Denise de Cordova, James Fisher, Dan Roach
14 December 2022 – 27 January 2023
You Will See Marvellous Things takes its title from a series of oil on panel paintings by Elaine Brown which are a response to a poem by the artist Dorothea Tanning, ‘Woman Waving at Trees’. The images show a lattice of windswept branches framed against an autumnal sky, bisected by a veil of paint that runs across the panel’s surface, much like a horizon line. The visual interruption is ambiguous, offering another view into the painting, transforming it from a description of nature’s phenomena into a landscape of mood.
Each of the artists in You Will See Marvellous Things draws the viewer into this kind of imaginative space. Their work explores the art object as a palimpsest that carries thoughts and ideas Denise de Cordova’s ceramic sculptures hint at narratives from folklore and fairytale, whilst playing a double entendre between object and material. A tiny heap of boulders, decorated with coloured glazes that draw attention to the surface details, sits atop a rock-like form. Within a single object an entire imaginary landscape is brought to mind.
James Fisher’s ostensibly bucolic landscapes mesh reality with a broad range of references that are drawn from different cultures and times. The images combine decorative schematics from Rajput and Persian miniatures, Japanese print and kigurumi characters. Executed in the vivid palette of computer games they carry a heightened sense of atmosphere.
Dan Roach’s paintings appear to be stilled moments from the blurred edges of vision. Enigmatic and somehow charged, they focus on abstracted forms that hover within the picture plane. The images suggest material objects that have transformed by the process of painting into emblems that are almost ethereal.
The exhibition marks the launch of a new publication on the work of James Fisher: Linden Lea, with texts by Olivia Bax and Martin Holman. A special edition of 25 copies with an archival inkjet print is available from the gallery.
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