Trickster
14 - 24 July 2022
Thur to Sun, 12-5pm
Private View :
Thursday 14 July 6-8pm
Studio Chapple is delighted to present Trickster, the first exhibition that displays in full the wide-ranging practices of the Floor Five Collective. Through investigating the notion of the 'trickster', each artist will playfully explore the common threads and nuances within the non-Western mythologies tied to their transcultural identities.
Contributing artists: Adrianna Whittingham, Alya Hatta, Hazel Blair, Leily Moghtader Mojdehi, Lori-Ann Burgess, Marion Aschbacher, and Maurane Gadeau.
Events:
'The Trickster's Tapestry': Collaborative tapestry-making workshop
Saturday 23rd July, from midday onwards, APT Gallery.
Trickster
Introduction by Studio Chapple
Spanning painting, textile, sound, moving image, installation and performance, the work of Floor Five Collective raises questions surrounding identity and cultural histories, whilst encouraging inclusivity, inquisitiveness and curiosity through bold aesthetics and installation. Whilst Trickster will highlight the diversity of each member’s particular cultural history and identity, investigating the notion of the ‘trickster’ will allow each artist to playfully explore the common threads and nuances in the non-Western mythologies tied to their transcultural identities.
The trickster is a crucial figure in non-Western folklore and oral mythologies, depicted in different cultures as an animal or humanoid. Shrewd and cunning, the trick-playing character can be regarded as a cultural folk hero who imparts wisdom through proverbial storytelling, but one who also has a dark, sometimes gluttonous side. This supernatural creature can often possess shapeshifting qualities, appearing in various guises while engaging in mischievous activities.
The artists of Floor Five Collective will draw parallels between the shapeshifting qualities of the trickster and the fluidity of their diasporic identities. Furthermore, the idea of playing a trick will be tied to the notion of the artist as imposter – working mischievously with non-Western artistic traditions. The mythology of the trickster as an intermediary figure between the human and spiritual worlds will also be explored; this mythical creature will be employed as an intermediary and bridge between the artist’s individual practices and the community based interactive work that will permeate the exhibition.
About the collective:
“Floor Five Collective is a London-based multidisciplinary group led by women of colour; we are amongst Goldsmiths University of London’s BA Fine Art graduating class of 2021. Our practices revolve around making visible the identities and ways of being that have been absent or distorted within canonical representation. We are a collective of thought, who marinate their minds in discourse shaped by our personal experiences and investigative research. Floor Five is committed to generating individual practices as a result of these discussions, which reveal old truths from new perspectives”.
Instagram: @floorfive_collective
Artist Introductions
Adrianna Whittingham is a London and Yorkshire based multi-disciplinary artist, working within the realms of writing, performance, audio, video, and installation. Their work often references their Jamaican cultural heritage and explores absurdist situations involving (though not exclusive to) various fruit, employing political undertones in relation to aggregate moods and opinions.
@adawhittingham
Alya Hatta uses the dynamism of colour, form, sound and space to explore the realm of digital and physical in representing her Southeast Asian identity, and to portray the colourful intimacies of the diasporic human condition. She takes inspiration from the communities of both her South-London and Kuala Lumpur residences as well as Southeast Asian mythology to create alternate realities in an attempt to find new spaces in which she can call home.
@alyahatta
Hazel Blair is Zambian-British multi-disciplinary artist who was raised in the Middle East and is currently based in London. Working within the realms of performance, video and painting, their work often references their dual heritage, as well as an exploration of symbolism, childhood memories and oral histories. Using her body as a performative vehicle, she often draws from her personal experience to make work that is steeped in transnational politics and shifting temporalities. She destabilises the notion of the other through spirituality, mythology, and interconnectedness of ancestral land.
@hazelnblair
Leily Moghtader Mojdehi is an Iranian, South-East Asian, and British artist, raised in the Middle East and now based in London. Her works revolve around personal narratives that explore her transcultural identity and liminal state of being, which inherently address socio-political concerns. Through her studio practice, Mojdehi adopts different visual languages, with the intention to layer her works not only literally, but referentially, steeping them in various historical, cultural, and aesthetic references. The outcome of this playful mixing comes work of gentle confusion between the real and the representational in densely layered collage compositions, in the form of mixed media, textiles collages, and ceramics alike.
@mojjyart
Lori-Ann Burgess is a Jamaican-Canadian artist based in London. In her figurative paintings and works on paper, she weaves her own narratives by deconstructing and reactivating images taken from popular media such as magazines and filmstills. Through careful composing, she blends her own semi-autobiographical photographs with obscure subcultural references, and more popular filmic imagery, opening them up to new and alternative contextual meanings. This narrative of complexity manifests as textured brushstrokes layered on top of highly saturated fields of colour and semitransparent washes.
@loriannburgess
Marion Aschbacher’s work possesses as its greatest inspiration, Réunion Island. It is the representation of childhood on an Island and surely distorted or dramatised by a child’s mind. As a child, the artist was not the happiest, felt trapped on this small island lost in the Indian Ocean. Through her work, she looks back with nostalgia, maybe a lingering taste of bittersweetness, to places and memories that she now holds dear. Traditional music from Réunion, playground games, video games, and places subtlety appear in the artist’s work as driving points. The work deals with the artist’s relationship with Réunion through the years and her willingness to show people a place they may have never been to.
@aschbachermarion
Maurane Gadeau, known as Mrs.Blues, is a French and Ivorian artist and musician. Through her multidisciplinary practice (music, textiles, paintings, recycled objects, performance and film) as well as her desire to collaborate with others, she creates spaces and moments inspired by Love. Her spontaneity and ambition have always influenced her art practice, often characterized as intuitive and eclectic.
@_mrsblues