There are just a few days until art_house_life @ 35 Madeira Road opens its doors to the general public once again as part of Ventnor Fringe Festival.
The CURIOS exhibition will feature recent work from eleven local, national and international artists who produce mixed media and interactions that are enquiring and unpredictable.
Within this feature you can find out more about five of the exhibiting artists:
See the second part to the feature, when you can find out more about the other six exhibiting artists.
Charlotte Fisher
Instagram @charlotte_g_fisher
The work shown by Charlotte Fisher in the CURIOS exhibition is an exploratory response to the artist’s experience of suffering an ischemic stroke in 2020.
A stroke is a traumatic and life changing event, but out of trauma can come post-traumatic growth. The artist, as a coach practitioner, draws on her interest in human potential and the capacity for both body and brain to adapt and change.
“After 30 years in hibernation as an artist, I became fascinated with the brain’s ability to rewire itself and to make new connections. Time spent walking in nature during my recovery and seeing those tiny shoots of growth within the deadened twigs of the winter hedgerows provided hope.
“Nature became my inspiration for drawing through which I try to convey my cognitive functions of thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition associated with the experience of stroke. And the curious, beautiful brain-like form of the humble walnut became as metaphor for the skull containing the control centre of human functioning and the brain being all that we are.”
The drawings on display reflect a personal investigation to the workings of a stroke survivor’s brain, abstracted self-portraits of a kind whilst the installation piece reflects on the wider impact of stroke.
Vidya Wolton
Instagram @vidya_wolton
Vidya’s work is primarily rooted in the landscape, whether working in paint or constructing in assemblage and mixed media.
Recent work has seen a departure into the deconstruction and then reassembling of canvases by way of stitch, ephemera and found objects.
Objects and motifs act as Signs. These may be of religious significance and are specific in meaning, such as the cruciform chanced from the cross pieces of an exposed canvas.
Other references include fashion and the suggestion of the body, but as an ambiguous space which is neither fully present or absent.
Violet Mareck
Instagram @violetmareck609
Website: violetmareckart.com
Violet moved to the Isle of Wight in 2014 and set up her studio space in Ryde with the aim of developing her practice and working full time as an artist. She uses a variety of media for making three- and two-dimensional artworks.
Her work is informed by subconscious and conscious reactions to current events and her own experiences. The human condition, the dark and the light sides, are an ongoing interest.
Her work at the Ventnor Fringe reflects an interest in memories and uncertainties.
“Childhood memories inform our adult minds, they influence the way we go on to live and how we treat others. Memories of what we were taught at school and our experience of family, or absent family, stick and follow us throughout our lives.
“Recent research into how our minds are created, speculate the possibility of memories being passed on from the distant past and embedded in our DNA.
“The nebulous nature of what we remember is somehow ethereal and come back to us in dreams, daydreams, and the stories we tell, but also in the way we behave and function. Things we think are true may not be, memories are difficult to grasp. Stitched and embedded into our very being.’’
Violet’s own memories are reflected in the work. Growing up surrounded by a multi-ethnic diverse community, living and travelling throughout the World and her family’s mental health difficulties, with the recognition that her memories will not be dissimilar to the memories of many others.
Radu Malfatti
Facebook: facebook.com/bboimrecords/
Website: radumalfatti.eu
Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone and harmonica player, and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on 16th December 1943.
Malfatti is associated with the style of music known as reductionism and has been described as, “among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art”.
His work “since the early nineties… has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work”.
He is displaying scores from his compositions and will be performing on Monday 25th July at 4.30pm.
Joanna Kori
Instagram @joanna_kori_art
Website: art-house-life.com/joanna-kori
‘Truncations’ started life as a public installation in April 2022 in response to the sewing and wider programme of community support work and activities that took place at Aspire Ryde.
Jo is showing ‘Truncations’ again within a domestic and more intimate context, reflecting on our ever changing and sometimes problematic relationship to clothing our bodies as we get older.
Look out for part two of the feature about the artists exhibiting at art_house_life’s Curios Exhibition as part of Ventnor Fringe Festival.
Our thanks to art_house-life for sponsoring this feature. They and other Fringe acts taking paid promotion enables you to continue reading OnTheWight for free.
