Anne Marie Laureys Crossover of Thoughts 2020 Photo Peter Claeys

Michael Brennand-Wood Storyboard2 Orange Dancer with Cosmic Skirt

London is burgeoning with exhibitions and sometimes the smaller ones can easily get overlooked. This is one exhibition not to be missed, and as it is a mere 4 minute walk from South Kensington Underground Station there really is no excuse for not popping in.  These two artists were brought together, because in the words of the curator, ‘both are going beyond,’ with their work, in an exhibition that juxtaposes the simple with the complex in a delightful thought provoking exhibition.

Both artists push their interaction with the material they work with, to go beyond the expected. Michael Brennand-Wood taps into his lifelong knowledge of embroidery and lace-making in combination with modern day techniques to create multi-layered sculptural textile works. Anne Marie Laureys begins her process by throwing a classic vessel that she then alters with the help of time and gravity; reshaping, remoulding and refolding the clay over and over again until the work has found its voice.

The exhibition is quite small, covering two rooms, but the gallery seems ideally suited to displaying the works, and an hour and 30 minutes flew by.

Michael Brennand-Wood has an international reputation as one of the most innovative and inspiring artists working in textiles today. Here he creates a new body of work called Storyboards. Taking the figure of Gulliver bound to the ground with thread as its starting point encapsulating a feeling of being trapped and unable to move.

The pieces seem at first viewing to be deceptively simple, a base of images and some scraps of text forming a collage, over which are dozens if not hundreds of pins linked by different coloured threads.

This really is a case of the more that you look the more you see. At first the threads seem to be a metaphor for holding someone or something in place, a little like Gulliver’s travels. The more threads the stronger the binds.

Look again and you will see that threads are also used as linkages, directing the eye through the story board from one point to another.

I realised that the threads also depicted movement e.g. the rigging on a sailing vessel and the pirouetting of a ballet dancer as well as the inability to move, because of the threads.

An eclectic collection of items are woven into each piece, a part of a floor tile; some hardened mercurial solder splashes taken from another artist’s studio floor; images from the artist’s childhood books; a small wooden frame; and even the artist’s grandmother’s door key, personalising the work, but also inviting the viewer to use these items to evoke feelings that arise from one’s own experience of such items.

These multi layered works are taking stitches to a different level and in doing so develops depth creating a sort of three-dimensional pointillism.

                                    

The ceramics in this exhibition demanded an iron will, such was their tactile appeal.

Belgian ceramic artist Anne Marie Laureys begins her process by throwing a classic, symmetrical pot. Whilst the clay is still soft and wet, she pulls, folds, pinches and punctures it. The tension of the clay underneath her fingers dictates the way the folds take shape, her pieces appear to have a spontaneous, unplanned quality.

However, Laureys takes her time to find the shape of a vessel, remoulding and refolding the clay over and over again until it speaks with her unique voice. No two works are ever the same. 

Each piece had a fine surface of what I initially took to be fine sand, added prior to the firing process, but was in fact fine crumbs of clay, together with some minerals such as nickel, iron and copper which renders the ceramic a velvet like visual quality rather than the usual shiny glaze.

These sculptural pieces range in colour from terracotta, bronze to pale blues and violet and have an organic feel, such that it is almost possible to discern the evolution of each piece.  The artist does not begin with a fully formed idea of what she is working towards or how the piece will look when finished, but rather takes her cue from the process.

There isn’t much time to visit this exhibition but it will certainly make you glad that you made the effort.

Venue: 4 Cromwell Place, Gallery 12, London, SW7 2JE, UK.     Dates: 30th May to 4th June 2023.    Wednesday to Saturday 10:00 – 18:00; Sunday 10:00 – 16:00