Changing Atmospheres: A group exhibition at Hestercombe Gallery. Curated by Tim Martin.

Olczak, Susie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9615-5514 (2021) Changing Atmospheres: A group exhibition at Hestercombe Gallery. Curated by Tim Martin. [Show/Exhibition]

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Abstract

Showcasing new and recent works from Paul Emmanuel, Fiona Hingston, Trish Morrissey, Susie Olczak, Alexandra Searle, Lucy Soni, Peter Stiles, Madinah Farhannah Thompson and Matt Stokes, Changing Atmospheres featured painting in its many forms, sculpture, film, performance and sound work. The previous two years had led many people to reconnect with their local natural environments. During this time, contemporary artists had exhibitions and commissions put on hold, which led to uncertainty but often provided time for reassessment and re-engagement. The exhibition presented nine artists, some of whom had realised new works for Hestercombe that were initially postponed by the pandemic, while others saw their relationships with flora and fauna take on new meanings during this period. This show from nine diverse artists, and the work they produced during those two years, made viewers think poignantly about history and the true significance of the landscape. Changing Atmospheres invited audiences to consider how art and the environment allowed connections to be forged with identity, other people, history and place in the world. Highlights of the show included: Paul Emmanuel’s sculptural fleece paintings, which evoked a strong sense of place. Working from his chapel studio in the Brecon Beacons, the works focused on materiality and process that were intrinsically linked to the local, pastoral landscape. Fiona Hingston’s poignant hay sculptures of a sleeping bag and pillow were made for her friend and neighbour, one of many who died of Coronavirus. Using hay from her friend’s field, Hingston stressed the importance of keeping her methods simple, stating “just twist the grass”. Trish Morrissey took as her starting point Christopher Anstey’s An Election Ball, published in 1776 and illustrated by C.W. Bampfylde of Hestercombe, to inspire her film Madge, an updated satirical look at Georgian Bath society from a contemporary woman’s point of view. Susie Olczak’s digital projection, Waiting for the Natural to be Switched On, explored Hestercombe’s landscape garden, its Great Cascade, through the use of framing. The film work was a visual journey that layered together footage of plants and water from within the gardens, alongside intertwining materials found in Olczak’s studio and the architectural spaces she moved through. Alexandra Searle drew on references to the mental and the medical, creating sculptures that combined the solid with the fragile and generated tensions and anxieties often physically represented in the strain and weight of the materials themselves. Lucy Soni’s work captured the spontaneous mark making of children through a classically trained eye, creating carefully balanced ‘scribble’ or ‘doodle’ compositions. Contracting COVID-19 shifted the artist’s attention to the outdoors, inspired by Gertrude Jekyll’s planting; she utilised images of plants and gardens in her large-scale wall piece. Peter Stiles returned repeatedly to the same places in Devon to create his landscape paintings, drawing parallels between the composition of pictures of nature with gardening and romanticism. Stiles assembled rocks and other features of the landscape into a rhythmic, musical flow, drawing on energies supplied by arabesques and rhythms that Gainsborough would have recognised. Matt Stokes presented a 16-channel audio installation entitled Beyond the Field. Originally made in 2019, it drew from the historical records of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, who made important recordings of changes to fauna and flora, or life on earth, as a consequence of the agricultural revolution of the 18th century. During the pandemic, three artists were connected to residencies at Hestercombe, in partnership with the Ingram Collection. Guardian featured artist Madinah Farhannah Thompson examined Black British people’s relationship with the English countryside. Born and raised in rural Norfolk, in this debut piece Thompson presented the first in a series of works exploring Black and rural identities through film and text.

Item Type:	Show/Exhibition
Additional Information:	Exhibition at Hestercombe Gallery 17th November 2021 to 27th February 2022
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment
Research Priority Areas:	Creative Practice and Theory
Depositing User:	Susie Olczak
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2022 12:06
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2026 12:57
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/11834

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