- Venue
- 19a (Formerly Coachwerks)
- Starts
- Saturday, October 14, 2023
- Ends
- Sunday, October 15, 2023
- Address
- 19a Hollingdean Terrace Brighton BN1 7HB
- Location
- South East England
Artists Julie Annis, Holly Dawes and Deborah Manson will be showing new work in their group show ‘The Mud at our Feet’ from the 30th September to the 14th October. Each artist works in their own different medium, but materials and process play an important role in their practices, with the natural world being the running thread through each of their work.
Annis says ‘the local landscape and the natural world around us are deeply important to each one of us. We all respond to it differently, but the visceral hold it has on each of our practices and the involved processes that we all engage in, in order to create our work are the common themes that bring our artwork together in this show’.
Deborah Manson grows and forages seasonal plants to extract colour and has cultivated a dye garden rich in plants for wildlife which she considers an extension of her studio practice. Manson transforms cloth and creates textile works and installations exploring her interest in materiality, colour, the seasons and time. “Making colour and investigating colour as a material has become an important theme in my work, alongside wildlife gardening, foraging, plant folklore, and dye recipes.” These activities are woven through her practice connecting her to both the past and the present.
Similarly, ceramicist Holly Dawes has an interest in working with locally foraged materials. Dawes collects and processes wild clay as well as minerals and other naturally found organic matter from beaches close to Hastings where she is based. ‘Collecting clay becomes more than a mere acquisition for my artwork; the process becomes a journey of connection and mindfulness’. Dawes works these wild elements into her ceramics, often combining them with commercially bought clay to create organic sculptural forms and vessels informed by the local landscape. The tactile experience of working with clay, allows Dawes to further her deep connection with the land.
The open vistas of local downland are very much the inspiration for painter Julie Annis’ latest body of work. Annis’ process involves spending time in the landscape, recording sketches and then developing these sketches into interpretations of moments and memories, creating dreamlike paintings with personal motifs and semi abstract backdrops. Annis has recently started to explore the idea of adding sewn and patch-worked elements into the surface of the canvas, as a way of adding a layer of domesticity and ‘motherly’ process, and also referencing crafted objects of reverence and ritual.
Private View – 29th September, 6-9pm
