Fabrication. An exhibition at Hardwick Gallery.

Olczak, Susie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9615-5514, Bowden, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8312-0758, Trotzig, Erika, Elton, Liz and Whatmore, Poppy (2023) Fabrication. An exhibition at Hardwick Gallery. [Show/Exhibition]

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Abstract

This collaborative exhibition considered the dual meanings of the word ‘fabrication’ in relation to artistic practice and process, and narrative construction: making and making up. Through sculptural assemblages the artists, Erika Trotzig, Liz Elton, Poppy Whatmore and Susie Olczak, attempted to destabilise typical associations of materials by deconstructing and re-combining existing objects, creating novel and provisional interpretations of both material and narrative that reconfigure our reading of objects in relation to context. Use of the term fabrication was framed in the context of JG Ballard’s writing; in particular, the novel Concrete Island. Written in 1974, Ballard’s story sets up scenarios responding to technological advancement and a changing socio-cultural environment. Finding himself marooned on an urban ‘island’, the novel’s main character Robert Maitland repurposes found objects into improvised support structures, such as a crutch fashioned from an old exhaust pipe, one of a range of tactical survival measures he is forced to make. Working with themes of survival, redundancy and creative adhocism explored in the book, the artists have extrapolated from particular passages in Concrete Island, approached as a kind of instruction for making. The exhibition continued in the Crush Hall cabinets at FCH Campus with a display of prototypes, maquettes, notes, drawings and work-in-progress.

Item Type:	Show/Exhibition
Related URLs:	https://www.susieolczak.co.uk/about
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > NB Sculpture
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment
Depositing User:	Susie Olczak
Date Deposited:	26 Mar 2026 16:16
Last Modified:	26 Mar 2026 16:16
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15960

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