Together, these six artists who bring their unique histories, practices, and perspectives to explore themes of memory, movement, resistance, and identity. Their narratives unfold through a wide range of media, including print, moving image, fabric, light, performance, photography, and family heirlooms.
‘Exhale,’ a video production and performance by Karen Tilley
The above performance was an extension of my film Exhale, which explored the many layers women undertake and the anxiety that can accompany these roles. By introducing humour and opportunities for audience participation, the performance brought a lighter, more playful edge to the themes explored in the film.
Alongside the performance, I presented a selection of monoprints and instructions on how to use the brown paper bags, which were also available to purchase.
If you are interested in having me perform at a future exhibition or event, please get in touch. I would be delighted to discuss opportunities to bring this work to a new audience.
Text: Part One & Two of a five part series. Images: cyanotype prints for installation; planning text for performance; audio set up; concerntina book and sewn pieces participant workshop.
An audiovisual installation inspired by the Sussex Downs, by Karen Tilley, in collaboration with Kevin Grist (immersive sound).
Solace toured Seaford Crypt Gallery and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, responding to each site through projected film, an original musical score, reflective sculpture and collected sounds.
In its final iteration, and in light of global events, Solace was reconfigured as an interactive 360 digital work.
Funded by Arts Council England and East Sussex Arts Partnership.
Installation view: The Crypt Gallery, Seaford
Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 42cm x 45cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 39.6cm x 59.4cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 59.4cm x 39.6cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 39.6cm x 59.4cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 39.6cm x 59.4cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 39.6cm x 59.4cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
Immersive installation.
“My work is inspired by the everyday sounds and visual moments that people often overlook or miss. By collating and reforming these components, I invite the audience to immerse themselves in an experience otherwise unseen or unheard”
Solace was a collaboration between Karen Tilley and the musician Kevin Grist.
Karen Tilley is a visual artist working in a multi discipline practice, which includes film, photography, audio and sculpture. Her ideas determine the process and mediums that will be incorporated into the artwork.
The artists have combined their skills to research open space and audio. They are interested in individuals interact with open space as a way to escape the emotional stress of the urban habitat, and what is left behind and what is taken from the interaction of open natural spaces of managed land.
By using film to capture the beauty of woodland, and then combining the visual representation with sound – derived from both the urban and natural environment – then manipulated using digital technology. Karen then introduced sculpture for the installation space. The sculpture acts as a path viewed through negative space immersing both the visual and the individual into the installation.
The work becomes disconnected from its natural open habitat and is reconstructed in the digital world feeding the audience with moments that are often missed and others that are questioned as authentic.
Presenting the question, what role has the natural world within a digital culture?
Solace was exhibited in three venues and extended to the wider audience through workshops that re-composed birdsong, captured from participants gardens, with the opportunity to create and play their own Sussex birdsong using sampler keyboards. Each of the three exhibitions evolved in response to materials submitted by local participants, resulting in an authentic community co-production. Solace: relief from emotional distress
Caliginous Giclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 39.6cm x 59.4cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) UnframedGiclée Printed on Hahnemühle German etch paper 39.6cm x 59.4cm Limited edition black and white print (of 50) Unframed
The project curator, Karen Tilley, happened across a discarded bag with unknown contents hanging on a telegraph pole and took a photo. When reflecting on the image, inspired by the Year of Dada and in the spirit of chance, Karen decided to invite 5 women from the Blue Monkey Network to use the image to create their own artwork.
A Dadaist take on serendipity. Criteria: monochrome palette, standard paper size, A4
The artworks displayed were a result of each woman’s individual artistic insight and personal response to the original image.
This project demonstrated the diversity of artistic styles and ways of seeing that can be inspired by a found image, used as a catalyst to provoke work outside of their established artistic boundaries.
Proposal: The opportunity to display the work in a non-gallery space would continue the theme of images being found or seen by chance and how they provoke individual responses in the viewer.
Size and display
x6 A4’s. Please click on individual images for larger view.
I am interested in the immediate environment: people, social demands and the way that art can have a physical effect on its viewer and how they interact or react to the work.
Exhale was born from the fast pace of every day living, constant demands that can distract from the quality of life and what’s important to the human condition.
I considered ways of making people stop and focus by giving then time to observe and be part of the work as it revealed itself to them. What emerged was a physical response to the rhythm of the breathing and sound, which had an immediate impact on its audience.
The video has been slowed down enhancing the effects, the models movement and intense gaze suck in the viewer engaging in an intimate and voyeuristic interaction.
