Paul Haywood, Chris Leach and Kara Lyons
Recently, and co-incidentally, Paul, Kara and Chris had all been making separate works that reference water in a variety of forms, using a range of disparate media representing each of the artists’ practices; video, photography, sculptural installation and drawings. The impetus for this exhibition was to demonstrate the work of 3 artists whose work is stimulated by this similar, powerful subject matter expressed creatively in different ways. This group exhibition showcased their individual work based around water as a common theme, and drew into focus the numerous extended ideas associated with it.
Chris made exquisite, miniature and detailed works in drawn and painted mediums describing the powerful energy of the swelling sea using photographs as source material. Paul produced line drawings using carbon paper, photographs and videos of waterscapes around our immediate locality, illustrating the perpetual vertiginous strength of moving water. Karen had been looking at the patterns created by water in the local canals using these observations to make sculptural performative installations with wet clay as well as gigantic graphite drawings made with her feet. The artists’ work drew on the beauty and awe of this vast subject matter as well as the complexity and fascination it has as a fundamental aspect of our lived, natural environment. The work speaks of the way in which we relate to water physically as well as existentially; of our relationship to cycles, power, scale, movement and the sublime.
Location: Gallery Frank, Ebor Studio, Littleborough, UK.
