SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition
May 2015
The Wonder Inn
The Wonder Inn
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition
May 2015
The Wonder Inn
The Wonder Inn
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
Soft Matter art exhibition and its accompanying publication intend to function as a catalyst for discussion. We are bringing together a number of international and UK-based artists whose work broadly responds to the construction of identity and its relationship with gender. We chose work which demonstrates the prevalence of the girlish aesthetic within contemporary feminist art. Femininity is the thread that links the elements of our exhibition and book but under this umbrella, we are presenting both written and visual explorations of identity, gender, the grotesque, body image, sexuality, sensuality and embarrassment. Soft Matter was inspired by the wealth of talented female-identifying art collectives such as: The Bunny Collective, The Coven, The Arduous, Clandestine Collective and World Wide Women Collective and the driven, ambitious women that lead them. We were also inspired by online spaces and platforms which have evolved into DIY publications for people to connect and showcase female creative talent, such as Girl Get Busy, Peachy N Keen, The Le Sigh, The Pulp Zine and Rookie magazine an online space that truly empowers teenage girls.
SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition
May 2015
The Wonder Inn
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
http://samanthaconlonart.tumblr.com
The Wonder Inn
SAMANTHA CONLON
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Samantha Conlon, b. 1990, London. Conlon is currently based in Cork City, Ireland studying for a BA in Fine Art from CCAD. Creator of Bunny Collective, an all female artist collective making work about the female experience. Her work has been published in Dazed and Confused, Galavant, Illuminati Girl Gang, Aqnb and more.
SOFT MATTER
SASHA CRESDEE by employing luxurious, oddly seductive materials and cut-out photographs of objects in a sickly sweet, predominantly gendered colour palette. Touch and intimacy are alluded to but the sensation is forestalled because all the viewer can do is look. Her work deals with various oppositions: flatness// tactility, heavy//light, reality// image, function//aesthetic.
Art Exhibition
Sasha Cresdee is currently studying BA Fine Art at London’s Chelsea College of Arts and is also a member of the feminist art collectives Bunny Collective and The Coven. Her installations and photographs appear as sculptural collages. Selected materials are meticulously arranged, placed, cut, draped, folded, rolled, and pinned. She explores the production of desire within image culture
May 2015 The Wonder Inn
http://sashacresdee.tumblr.com
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Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
May 2015
“THIS BODY WAS MINE IN THE FIRST IT WAS ONLY EVER UP OF OBJECTS PROMISES NEVER
NEVER PLACE, MADE AND KEPT.”
The Wonder Inn
http://www.charlotatecullen.co.uk
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CHARLOTTE CULLEN Charlotte Cullen’s practice addresses the intersection of class and gender on the bodies objecthood, negotiating the promises made by objects of desire. Addressing the potentiality between form and
affect she creates work that is both cheap and slick, minimal yet emotionally involved. Manipulable materiality becomes through a precarious embodiment, exploiting existing tensions and categorisation.
Forming a relationship between materiality; hard and soft, malleable and immutable the practice seeks to establish the affective object as the site of for longing whilst seeking space for disobedience and autonomy.
SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition May 2015
KELLY CULVER
The Wonder Inn
Kelly Culver is an artist based in Leeds. Her work focuses on social reflection and how we interact in a media driven society. Culver looks at the multiple ways we communicate with each other through movement and image to represent certain aspects of everyday life. As an artist, she is interested in the mundane and how we are supposed to act and represent ourselves within society. Culver uses a range of practices in her work from installation to performance. The work submitted for Soft Matter focuses on the medium of hair - commenting on how this natural material is fetishised, policed by society and turned into a consumer product.
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SOFT MATTER
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
http://cargocollective.com/coriedenbymcgowan
CORIE DENBY MCGOWAN Corie Denby McGowan is a student at the University of the Arts, London. Within her artistic practice elements of traditional craft, such as embroidery and print, co-exist in a harmonious relationship alongside digital film projection. McGowan approaches film-making in a very tactile way driven by print-making and collage processes. In installation works, the physicality of the materials and their presence are fundamental in the way that they create a direct link between the artist and viewer. One can fully emerge and indulge their senses in the experience as a whole when being able to touch, see and hear the artwork.
The Wonder Inn
Themes of gender identity and intersectional feminist theory are predominant within the works, which attempt to reconstruct how women are treated within the Fine Art spectrum, taking into consideration gender associations, stereotypes and the representation of women through the media.
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Highly eye-pleasing and mesmerising colours are generated with an obscenely grotesque approach. The work advocates a sense of indulgence in the overly decorative and excessive. This evokes thoughts of how commercials control audiences to essentially ‘sell’ using highly sex infused imagery. This work explores aspects of power and how seductive material is used to lure in, manipulate and captivate audiences within capitalist culture.
SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition
http://www.hannahfarrell.com/
HANNAH FARRELL
May 2015
Hannah Farrell (b.1990) is an artist who lives and works in Manchester, UK. Her work sits at the cross-section of collage, sculpture and photography. Using found adult images and everyday objects, she create installations and photographs that aim to seduce, as well as unsettle. Farrell’s work is concerned with unravelling and unlearning ideas that have been engrained into us by Western culture. She works intimately with her materials; touching, moulding and enlarging them to reveal questions surrounding intimacy, desire and the ‘self ’.
The Wonder Inn
Her process is an ongoing exploration into the tension between the higher self and the external persona. She constructs and arranges materials as a way of questioning and unravelling ideas that are engrained into us from childhood; ideas surrounding intimacy, what it means to be 'sexy' and what it means to be 'feminine'.
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Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
Georgia Grace Gibson is a 19 year old artist from North East England, currently attending a foundation course in art and design at Sunderland University’s National Glass Centre Campus after finishing her A Level Fine Art at Durham Sixth Form. Having worked in a variety of mediums in the past (particularly photography), Gibson focus is on ceramics, sculpture (both mixed media and textiles) and
performance/video art. Her work includes ideas rooted in her feminist beliefs, which motivates her interest in stereotypical feminine work like pottery, while largely looking at the concepts of sexuality throughout genders, and how that is represented within orientation, aesthetics and occurrences such as marriage.
Exhibition. She has been featured in 9 magazines and currently works for The Pulp Zine and Cherry Mag, while running a self-made femaleidentified collective, Clandestine Collective, based within the North East of England.
Georgia’s work has been selected by the Royal Academy of Arts for their online Summer
The Wonder Inn
May 2015
GEORGIA GRACE GIBSON
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http://www.georgiagracegibson.com
SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition May 2015
http://meghangraydondarby.tumblr.com/
MEGHAN GRAYDON DARBY and design has a playful mixed media response which is exaggerated by the eccentric colour and experimental surfaces she chooses to work with, this breaking down a barrier between fine art and textiles within her work.
The Wonder Inn
Artist Meghan Graydon Darby’s focus is on producing unconventional and manipulated textural pieces; her style is mainly inspired by her surroundings, tacky materials and artificial colours. Her overall methodology towards art
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May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
The Wonder Inn
ELEANOR BETH HASWELL
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Eleanor Beth Haswell is an eighteen year old art student from North East England, currently studying a Foundation Degree in Art and Design at Sunderland University. Her work is Fine Art based, specialising mainly within photography and ceramics, with her current work focusing on connections and intersections within intimacy. Prior to this, her personal projects have supported feminist issues, highlighting mainly upon the media’s negative perception of women within society today. Out of education, Eleanor runs a female identified arts collective named Clandestine Collective based in the North of England. She has organised and featured in her own exhibition, ‘And So, The Flowers Bloomed’, alongside two other artists within Clandestine Collective.
http://dropr.com/eleanorhaswell
SOFT MATTER
JENNIFER HEWSON
Art Exhibition
Artist Jennifer Hewson’s recent work has been concerned with the role advertising, media and popular culture play in the perpetuation of gender and racial stereotypes. She explores themes of hyper sexualisation, hysteria and denial through collage of film and sound.
May 2015 The Wonder Inn
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Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
May 2015
http://www.bexilsley.com
The Wonder Inn
BEX ILSLEY
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Bex Ilsley is an artist based in Manchester. Her work is pre-occupied with the strange nature of reality, with a focus on chemical reactions and shapes formed naturally by fluids under the influence of force. Her sculptural works seek to capture the temporary movements of fluids as permanent, ambiguous
forms. Another aspect of Ilsley’s work explores the way an image can be changed by new contexts and audience responses when shared online. A distinction is made between the photographed physical entity and the photograph as a symbolic image in virtual space. This work examines the hyperreal
and the potential of fictionalised identities. Employing the use of an imaginary version of herself online, Ilsley seeks to question the space of display for art, the audience, the authenticity of identity and the authenticity of the work that she has completed previously.
SOFT MATTER
ELIZABETH ILSLEY Art Exhibition
Elizabeth Ilsley is an artist based in Birmingham. The intent with her current work is to show the body from a voyeur’s perspective in a private situation. Presenting her body in what may be perceived as an unflattering or shocking view is intended to sit in contrast to the bodies we are used to seeing on social media. Ilsley hopes to relate to people of all genders with this theme of privacy and comfort with the body as it is.
May 2015 The Wonder Inn
http://www.elizabethilsley.com
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May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
The Wonder Inn
BELLA JONES
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Bella Jones is an artist currently studying at Manchester School of Art. Working between the realms of illusion and sensibility, her art delves into the notions of the fabricated mythical female and the true experiences of living as a woman. The depiction of both the female body and psyche are prominent features in her art, displaying the sensual aura that surrounds a feminine subject.
SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition
“FOR CENTURIES WE (IN SEX, RACE, IDENTITY) HAVE BEEN ORDERED, SEPARATED, CONTAINED, CATEGORIZED AND REGULATED. THE CLASSIC FEMALE NUDE; IT IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THE CONTAINMENT AND REGULATION OF THE FEMALE SEXUAL BODY. MARBLE SCULPTURES ARE FLAWLESSLY CONTAINED WITHIN THEMSELVES, FEMALE GENITALS ARE HIDDEN AND THE BODY IS ORIFICE-LESS, NO HUMAN MATTER CAN SULLY THE PURITY OF THE STONE.”
May 2015 The Wonder Inn
REBECCA KAY Rebecca Kay’s art practice explores this concept along with the relationship between text and image, anthropology, collections and categories whilst investigating the restrictions of gender binarism. http://rebeccakay.format.com/
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SOFT MATTER
Brooke Kelty is an artist based in New York City. She creates videos that explore pseudo-intellectualism, spirituality, and identity. In her more recent YouTube Bath Babe series, Brooke
maintains a controlled ambiguity between her “authentic� personality and a satirical character. She extends this ambiguity to YouTube comments, where her responses remain lighthearted
to viewer reactions, which range from fun role playing to anger and confusion. Brooke takes on the role of make-up artist, director, editor, and performer while producing her videos.
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
BROOKE KELTY
Artwork The Wonder AtelierInn
http://www.youtube.com/user/brookeekelty
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SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition May 2015
http://saffascribbles.tumblr.com/
SAFFA KHAN
The Wonder Inn
Saffa Khan is an illustration student from Manchester School of Art, who enjoys combining elements of photography and illustration to project a narration of her memories and experiences as a woman artist of colour, questioning her beliefs and sexuality whilst living in a controversial society. She also enjoys making mini zines; consisting of her daily thoughts, challenges with mental illnesses, a few doses of dreams with a hint of colour.
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May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
http://dropr.com/robynnichol
The Wonder Inn
ROBYN NICHOL
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Robyn Nichol is a nineteen year old feminist artist. Her work is mainly inspired and motivated by the presentation and role of women in society, particularly the unachievable perfection presented by the media and the flawed expectations that women are told to live up to. Nichol has recently been exploring the transition from being a little girl to a young woman,
and the role that sexuality plays in this, focusing on a combination of childlike aesthetics and objects relating to sex. In her work she uses stereotypically feminine crafts, mainly combining sewing, hand embellishment, sculpture and photography.
SOFT MATTER
LAURENCE PHILOMENE Art Exhibition May 2015
Laurence Philomene’s work carves out an idealized femme utopia. Claiming to reject masculinity entirely, she reimagines the world as well as her subjects in such a way that values and is entered around comfort and femininity. Her use of pink and her reclamation of girliness is as much an unapologetic statement about societal values as it is an aesthetic choice and together, through this merging of theory and composition, she creates a dreamscape in which she as well as her viewers can find solace. http://www. laurencephilomene.com
Artwork The Wonder Atelier Inn
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May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
https://instagram.com/schelsey
The Wonder Inn
SCHELSEY MAHAMMADIE-SABET
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Schelsey Mahammadie-Sabet is an illustrator born and based in Los Angeles, California. She uses illustration as a medium with which she can convey her emotions, impressions and memories--- anything that is not adequately expressed with language alone. Most of her work is rendered first with pen and paper, next it is
photographed, then it is edited using an iPhone App. She is drawn by the bright and synthetic colors she can access with digital media. Her most recent work has focused on her exploration of the experience of being a female. Illustration in this context becomes an especially powerful tool as it can provide a new visual vocabulary to help
women describe themselves in emotionally healthier and more empowering ways. She aims to illustrate moments of honesty, moments to which other women can relate. Her art is made with the intention of being posted online, it is made for sharing and connecting.
SOFT MATTER
ADELINA SASNAUSKAITE Art Exhibition
Adelina Sasnauskaite, originally from Lithuania, has immigrated to London in 2011 to study for a BA in Illustration & Visual Media from UAL, LCC. Her work mainly focuses on the female body as an object in the media & the notion of one's femininity within a social context.
May 2015 The Wonder Inn
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zefyr-/
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May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
http://www.zoeschlacter.com/
The Wonder Inn
ZOE SCHLACTER
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Zoe Schlacter is a visual artist and designer currently studying textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design. Schlacter's work deals with the subjects of ornamentation and femininity, as well as childhood art making practices. In addition to working as a fine artist, Schlacter hand-crafts floral headpieces, writes a blog (girlwiththeflower. com), and works as a freelance designer for an accessories brand.
SOFT MATTER
CERYS THORNE documentation of this global feeling. She is creating an autobiography of personal embarrassing situations. The pieces aim to be sensuous and intimate, letting you explore private areas of her life.
Art Exhibition
Cerys Thorne is an artist currently studying Fine Art at Manchester School of Art. Her work explores the notions of embarrassment and awkwardness. Embarrassment is indiscriminate. It is something that everyone encounters. Her work is a
May 2015 The Wonder Inn
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Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
May 2015
http://aimee-walker.tumblr.com/
The Wonder Inn
AIMEE WALKER
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We are on a pilgrimage of perfection. Allured by superficiality and the ideology of self-improvement, and relishing in strong flirtations between image and identity. Wrapped in layers of orchestrated language, our desires are tangible promises in a sea of clichĂŠs, seduced to consider the ways goods and
commodities deliver promises of everlasting youth, love and femininity. Aimee Walker is infatuated with the ironic reflections on our aspiration that form coherent identities, which have been designed, rewrapped, advertised and sold like a product.
SOFT MATTER
ZEKE’S LUNCHBOX photographers, musicians and artists across Australia. Ranging from a textiles print for Melbourne based label DGTL LUXE to designing album covers for international musicians.
Art Exhibition
http://www.zekeslunchbox.com
May 2015 Artwork The Wonder Atelier Inn
Zeke: master of interplanetary portraiture and extra terrestrial culture whore. A child of 21st century consumer culture, Zeke explores science fiction, sex and the bizarre through ‘Zeke’s Lunchbox’. Her sickly-sweet imagery and use of colour seduces the viewer, offering an invitation into a world dominated by darker undertones of obsession. Influenced by kitsch and space age, Zeke extrapolates ideas and imagery from everything B-grade. The work is triggered by schlock artists and draws inspiration from illustrators of Goosebumps and The Garbage Pail Kids. A bowerbird of pop culture, Zeke creates a glittering assemblage of excess, overwhelming yet carefully balanced in composition, content and colour. In 2014, Zeke accomplished two solo exhibitions, Zci Fi Werld and Zeke's Werld with great critical and commercial success. Both shows explored her ongoing obsession with science fiction and the creatures that inhabit her universe. Zeke's work has been exhibited in a multitude of group shows across Australia, including "Artwank" at the Tate Gallery and "Useless" curated by the Corner Cooperative. Zeke has been asked to 'live paint' in festivals and design conferences across Australia like Semi-Permanent and Art, Not Apart. Zeke has also collaborated with designers,
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The Wonder Inn
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER
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SOFT MATTER
Art Exhibition
May 2015
The Wonder Inn
The Wonder Inn
May 2015
Art Exhibiton
SOFT MATTER