Grey Matters

Studio Exhibition - July 2007

Held at the studio of Jean Wallis in July 2007. Click for more photos...

Mary Thomas

I've been thinking about getting old.

Long Marriages.

Long Memories.

Memories of those who never had the chance.

Ann Wells

Vortex, 2007 series:

This project looks at phobias. It relates to the theme of 'Grey Matters' because it is about negative/positive thinking. My main references were gathered during a visit to Berlin, namely the German Expressionist film 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' directed by Robert Weine; Daniel Libeskind's 'The Jewish Museum' and Norman Foster's 'Dome of the Reichstag'.

Anne Jones

In 2002 I had a major stroke. It left me unable to speak or read or write, as well as physically disabled. For a while, I was able to communicate only by gestures. Yes ...No ....The words were all there in my head, thrashing about like fish out of water but just as I thought I had got hold of one, it slithered out of my grasp. And there was the thought that maybe I would never regain speech and language skills, or only on the simplest of levels.

Jean Wallis

Grey has many qualities and is defined as a neutral tone, intermediate between black and white; one that has no hue and reflects and transmits only a little light; dismal or dark, esp. from lack of light; gloomy; neutral or dull, especially in character or opinion; of or characteristic of old age; wise; ancient; venerable.

A grey area is understood to be an area or part of something existing between two extremes and having mixed characteristics of both.

Grey has been a critical colour in the development of this series of paintings, which deal with my thoughts on the proposed loss, through building, of a precious communal green and open space.

As a result of these quite particular concerns my work has widened to explore the philosophical questions surrounding change and nostalgia affected by architecture and planning.

Rosemary Oakeshott

My recent work has been concerned with challenging cultural preconceptions about value.

Through working with neutral coloured cotton and using basic knitting techniques I present simple structures and materials as valuable - depending for their strength and interest not on aesthetics, colour or utility, but on their ability to create forms which evoke memories and emotions.

Jenny Clayden

In my pieces for this exhibition I am concerned with ageing and ageism and how it is possible to stereotype old people as being without colour or interest.

Through my work I would like to put forward the theory that old people matter and can be colourful and creative and behave unexpectedly, although grey at first glance.

I work mainly in papier mache and the sculptures are of different heights as they gain significance and change from grey to bright colours and become larger in size.

I would also like to research and develop the idea of the conflict between the generations; possibly with a wrestling match between an old woman and a younger man.

Linda Scott

The photographic images and 3D objects I have created for Grey Matters relate to the different characteristics of memory - transience, absentmindedness, blocking, distortion, suggestibility (false memories), bias (reconstructing the past based on present beliefs), misattribution ( memory from one source attributed to another) and persistence (intrusive recollections). By exploring how memories are stored, retrieved, reconstructed and reinterpreted in relation to the present, I am attempting, in my artwork, to depict memories as the reconstruction of disparate elements, influenced by subsequent experiences.

The theory underpinning this artwork is concerned with the construction of individual worlds from life's experiences, creating personal narratives and an identity by 'storying the self'. The artwork conveys brief glimpses into an individual's creation of that story.

Research included: "How the Mind Forgets and Remembers", Daniel L. Schacter, Chair of Harvard University's Dept. of Psychology, pub. Souvenir Press Ltd., London 2003. "The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self", D.P. McAdams, Guilford Press, New York 1993. "The Treasure Chests of Mnemosyne", Fleckner Sarkis, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1998. The film "Memento" and Chapter 2, 'Storying the Self; Personal Narratives and Identity' in "Consumption and Everyday Life", ed. Hugh Mackay, Sage Pub., London, 1997.

Janice Thwaites

TO SEE THE SEA

Late last year I suffered a haemorrhage at the back of my left eye. I now see things in three different ways. With both eyes my vision is distorted, with the left eye closed, and wearing spectacles, I can see fairly well, this is the only way I can read. With my right eye closed I enter a bent and twisted world, with layers, and halos. There is a distortion and lack of colour too, and I feel as if I am in a grey mist. Initially I became very clumsy, misjudged distances, and surfaces.

I intend to work on a project relating to what I am actually seeing.