The Ladies

Five of my Ladies have just been accepted for an online exhibition called CONNECTED, due to be launched 2nd October. As well as showing digital work, artists are asked to write 200 words questioning if art is as significant when the exhibition is purely online. I look forward to reading the other selected artists views. Will post the link to the project when it opens.

'Mark on the Wall'

One of the drawings selected for 'Mark on the Wall' exhibition at the Greenley Gallery in Bloomsberg University, Philidelphia, USA. Connected to the 25th Virginia Woolf Convention held in the university, the piece is called 'The Anonymous Writer's Wardrobe - the Apron' in reference to a quote from Woolf's book 'A Room of Ones Own'.

'For most of history, Anonymous was a woman'

I'm sure she was right.

Current Work

Becoming deaf, my hearing has deteriorated to the point where conversation can sometimes be difficult. I am learning to lipread. Mouths have become more than a means of aural communication or emotional countenance, they are visual expressions in the most basic sense. 

I watch words. I work hard to hear, make mistakes, get tired, I become invisible. As the population ages, there are a lot of us about, in isolation whilst surrounded by people, observing mankind through a veil of miscommunications, anxious, apologetic. Loosing a primary sense is a slow bereavement.

There are words and phrases used constantly…..

”Sorry?” (I can’t hear you)

“Please don’t turn away from me” (I need to see your lips)

“Look at me please” (I need to see your lips)

“Don’t walk away from me” (I need to see your lips!!)

These are just a few of the practical requests that I realized were holding in their words huge emotional content which went much further than hearing loss. The work I’m engaged in emerged from a growing disability but has developed into the expression of a more universal hunger, the need to communicate under stress, and the difficulty in doing that. We’ve all been there, when words fail us, when you can’t hear your thoughts, your mind goes blank. You try to find the right words but there is just a cacophany.

The Ladies. Small papier maché figures which are polymorphic in their use. They can be part of a sculptural installation, or can be photographed and manipulated into digital prints, they appear in the clocks. Many have fantasized heads invented to express their emotions, most are veiled.  They are used to create stories to be recorded in other media or they can stand in their own right.

Herts Open Studios

 My Open Studio dates are the weekends of  5/6,  12/13,  19/20  and 26th September hours from 12.00 - 5.00. 

Address - The Studio, 30 Kimberley Rd, St Albans AL3 5PX

I’m intending showing prints from ‘The Sailing Years’ and canvases from ‘Coloursquares and Madurai’ (previous posts)

I shall also be showing some of my recent black paperworks. See  www.anitaford-art.co.uk