Artists’ walk and talk event at Blyth Arts, Imperial College London – 29th June 2022.

It was fantastic to be invited by Mindy Lee, curator of Blyth Arts, to hold an artists’ lead event with co-exhibitor Isabel Young as part of Fictions held at the Blyth Gallery Imperial College London between 08/06/22 – 07/07/22.

The talk coincided with Imperial College’s open day, creating a diverse audience; alongside prospective pre-degree students and parents, we had current post-graduate students from the RCA, colleagues, practitioners, and guests.

The event was an excellent opportunity for Isabel and I to position our practice and discuss the exhibition Fictions as a concept and how our work had evolved since its first iteration in 2020. We engaged with various discourses and developments, the fundamental premises around the evolution of human intellect and material existence traced through the endurance of the artefacts left behind. The objects drawn, imagined, and physical that populate both our practices and inhabit Fictions span geological time and centuries across continental distances. The global products of manufacture and culture which converge in my drawings and embroidered works battle with the ancient rocks and scaled maquettes of Young’s expanded paintings in an interplay that no longer binds objects to their birthplace or taxonomy. 

The event allowed for an informal approach to discussing and debating work outside of the more familiar educational contexts like lectures or seminars. It enabled the audience to interact with the work and simultaneously engage with the concepts contained within it. The range and depth of questions were diverse, challenging and enquiring, evoking an excellent discourse between Isabel and I that will inform and frame future collaborations.