An exhibition of prints, drawings, collage, photographs, video and sound.
We’re a group of five artists (Clare Winter, Filippa Dobson, Jane Roberts, Liz Byrne, Neil Lamont). Four of us are based in East London and know each through printmaking classes with the Tower Hamlets Idea Store in Shadwell. Filippa Dobson is based in Yorkshire and is a printmaker working increasingly with video and sound. We supported each other during the 2020/21 lockdowns by forming an online zoom art group. We have continued to meet weekly online, providing encouragement, support and companionship, alongside quite a bit of laughter while we pursue our individual art projects One thing we all have in common is printmaking, but we also work in mixed media, pastel, paint, photography, sound, video and collage. Our work ranges from figuration to abstraction - and various points in between! The title imprints has a broad and literal attachment to the act of printing and emotional presence. There are also many other associations - to mark, trace or indicate, and also to memory, presence, belief etc - which allows us plenty of scope to separately interpret and apply it to the work we have chosen.
About Clare:
I have been thinking about the ageing process, particularly how it affects women. These etchings have been transformed over time, marks added, covered up and scraped away. The finished image is something quite different from where it began.
About Filippa:
Filippa Dobson follows prehistoric pathways investigating landscapes of mobility where stone monuments persist, move around and sometimes stay still. Working increasingly with digital imprints: photographs, projection, video and sound, she travels between the Yorkshire Dales, Knoydart and Skye mapping archaeological traces above and below ground. A burial cairn, a cave site, a defensive structure and clearance dwellings tell stories of violence and erasure where cycles of warfare and climate change contribute to a sense of unease. Three thousand years ago people cleared the land of stones for monument building. From medieval times people were cleared for sheep. The land and its monuments resists.
About Jane:
For most of her career Jane Roberts’ paintings, drawings and prints have focussed on the natural world. The work in this show is inspired by a coastline she has visited every year for over 25 years. It is a place subject to accelerated erosion. She records some of the impact of this erosion on the native oak woodland growing above the beach. Jane is fascinated by what is worn away and what remains, by what endures and what is lost.
About Liz:
My work is largely abstract and can involve any combination of printing, drawing, painting, collage and mixed media. I am often drawn to the natural world for inspiration and I love pattern and texture. I work intuitively and I am led by materials and unfolding outcomes. I have a musical background and an easy relationship with improvisation. I am open to instinct or’ happy accidents’ leading me somewhere unplanned. As Miles Davis famously stated, ‘It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note- it’s the one you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong’. Some pieces here have been inspired by time spent by the sea.
About Neil:
These recent works are paint transfers (decalcomania) and giclee print photographs of original chemigrams. I’ve just let the colour, shape and texture be as they will - it’s as abstract as can be, not specifically about anything. What’s there is just presence - mine, the materials, the artwork, and all that is! What comes to mind are the words of GM Hopkins: All the world is full of inscape and chance left free to act falls into an order as well as purpose Journal (24 February 1873)
Contact: If you have any questions regarding this exhibition, please email programming@stmargaretshouse.org.uk
Venue: The Chapel at St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road — E2 9PL
Access: We are working to make our Grade II listed building more accessible, but it will take some time. Please note that entry to the Chapel is not step-free. If you require access support (including our portable ramps) and/or access to an accessible toilet, please contact us on 020 8980 2092 or email programming@stmargaretshouse.org.uk so we can arrange this for you.
Dates & Times:
Opening Event: Friday 23rd October, 6.30-8.30pm
Exhibition: Friday 23rd - Monday 26th October, 10am-4pm
Tickets for the Opening Event are free, but registration is essential