Disruption
Catherine Dormor & Beverly Ayling-Smith
12 July – 5 August 2008

‘Disruption’ is an exhibition of textile-related artwork by Catherine Dormor and Beverly Ayling-Smith. Both artists graduated with first class honours degrees in Embroidered Textiles from Opus School of Textile Arts (Middlesex University) in 2006. Although dealing with different subjects, their approach to contemporary textiles is similar in that they are both concerned with the transient state of material which occurs as a result of touch and decay. On its debut at New Hall College, Cambridge, Estella Shardlow in The Cambridge Student newspaper described the exhibition as a ‘succinct but macabre, a submission to the degenerative or manipulative effects of contact – either physical or temporal – and finds beauty in such conditions.’

Beverly Ayling-Smith says “my work employs materials traditionally used for burial, lead and linen. The relationship between cloth and the body lasts longer than a lifetime – in this work cloth is used as a reminder of our own mortality, the common denominator of human experience, to evoke feelings of loss, absence, remembrance and memorial, while partly revealed text suggests rituals and processes that are undertaken for our remembrance.” In Catherine Dormor’s work, “the idea of the screen takes on a dual role, with a focus on the relationship between the cloth-screen of the work and the surface screen onto which images engaging with the cloth-screen are projected. Considering the screen in this way focuses on the role of the tool within the haptic/scopic relationship; multiple screenings present the view with a dynamic in which body, tool and sight entwine and separate.”

ETERNAL METAMORPHIS
www.eternalmetamorphosis.org
Alexis Rago & Janet Warin
7 June – 6 July 2008

Eternal Metamorphosis brings new work by Alexis Rago and Janet Waring to London. The show reveals connections between less obvious aspects of the unusual setting of the Dissenters' Gallery and the artists' ideas. These are expressed through a series of large-scale landscape pinhole photographs that extend the medium's possibilities, together with extremely delicate and intricate small-scale sculptures in clay (reminiscent of some fantastic fossil finds) and glowing paintings that draw you into a world of imaginative creatures in various stages of abstraction and metamorphosis.

Two evening concerts in the Dissenters’ Chapel complement the exhibition. On June 7, brilliant young violinists Marko Pop Ristov and Florian Rago will play a series of expositions of the solo violin. On June 14, Florian will be joined by pianist Suzanne Szczetnikowicz to recall the 19th-century violin virtuoso and friend of Beethoven, George Polegreen Bridgetower, who is buried in the catacomb beneath the Anglican Chapel.

Talks will bring an insight into the creative way of life and the emergence of new meanings in society through what has been called 'The Politics of the Heart'. Writer, lecturer and artist Deborah Ravetz will be giving an interactive talk "The Inner Life, Society and the Artist", on June 15 at 16:45. Alexis Rago will be giving the artists' talk, following on from Deborah's ideas about the exchange between the self and artistic expression, in “The Who, What and Why of an Art Work”, on June 22 at 16:45.

For those who want to dip their toes in some creative pinhole photography or large scale painting reminiscent of prehistoric cave drawings, the artists will be offering informal workshops. This includes the opportunity for resulting work to be exhibited at the eternalmetamorphosis.org online gallery especially designed for these events.

Uncovering the New Age
Textile Art by Ferret
7 March 7 – 7 April 2008
www.ferfab.co.uk

Ferret is pleased to announce her art exhibition, "Uncovering a New Age" at The Dissenters Gallery in Kensal Green, North West London.

This innovative exhibition brings the medium of textiles into the 21st century, being used to create works of art rather than the usual purely functional pieces.

A rocket scientist now turned artist, Ferret finds inspiration in false colour and unnatural scales. She is a self taught artist, working in mixed media, predominately fibre.

Ferret holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in both Physics and Astrophysics from the University of Kent, where she worked on the Russian Mars '94 mission, and on NASA's LDEF research satellite. After graduation, she worked as a software engineer before settling on her true calling as an artist.

Her award winning work has been exhibited in several prestigious international juried shows in recent years. The exhibition includes several award winning pieces.

Linnaeus: ‘Plant Harlotry’
CHARLIE MURPHY
6 - 28 October 2007

Charlie Murphy’s delicate glass installations celebrate the extraordinarily expressive features of plant life at its most audacious and vibrant. Inspired by Carl Linnaeus’s famously inaccurate ‘Sexual System’ of classification, her exuberant sculptures investigate elaborate displays in a variety of plant forms through hand-drawn lamp-worked glass.

Charlie Murphy trained in fine art and photography, and her practice includes photography, video, glass sculpture, dentistry, Tall Ships and dance. Her work has been presented in galleries, museums and festival contexts throughout the UK and Internationally, including the Venice Biennale 2005 and Tate Modern. She has been supported by an Artsadmin mid-career bursary, ACE and ongoing associations with Artsway, Colchester Arts Centre and Artsadmin.

This year marks the 300th anniversary of Carl Linnaeus’ birth, with a celebratory programme of events organised by The Linnean Society of London. Although later systems of classification largely employed more morphological evidence, Linnaeus’ binomial system of nomenclature and his hierarchical system of classification, albeit modified, has remained standard for over 200 years. Not least, his plant taxonomy proposed many ‘groupings’ that seemed morally ‘unnatural’ to his peers and were considered extremely controversial in his day.