Enchanted Bodies
Michael Ajerman, Jon C Archdeacon, Sarah MK Archdeacon,
Lena Brazin, Paul Coombs, Emma Cousin, Sarah Gillham,
Emily Godwin, Susie Hamilton, Thomas Hylander,
Mindy Lee, Sarah Lederman, Tim Spooner, Marianne Walker
Curated by Mindy Lee and Jon C Archdeacon
Supporting texts by Emily Godwin
‘The body is in the eye. Sensations received visually take hold in the total organism. Perception moves the total personality to excitation. Insight is a result of sensation’s creative action on our capacity to experience and discover functional connections. (We are part of nature and of all visible and invisible forms)’
Carolee Schneemann
Enchanted Bodies is a drawing, painting, photography, performance and sculpture exhibition. It explores transformative encounters through the body, in mixed media.
Each artist uses an amalgam of different experiences to inform their practice; whether lived experience, memory, dreams, spirituality, observation, myth, folklore, or reference to art history and contemporary culture. The artists are linked by layering these experiences in their art, interacting with the body in unexpected and enigmatic ways.
While some interact with body physically, either through photography or constructed costumes, others conjure figures in between fiction and reality on canvas or in sculpture. Often the familiar is shifted into the strange, the surreal or ritual.
No encounter is static. These unfixable tales beguile the viewer with conflicting sensations such as humour, surprise, love, loss, struggle, play, violence, nature, nurture and voyeurism. As the interactions are layered up; gently, playfully, forcefully; they change through the process of making. Bodies move, become abstracted, fragmented, covered over, submerged, eaten into or dissolved as they weather their environment.
The viewer can read the body’s language and pin the scenarios in a place, but the sense of self is forever altering. An enchanting dance of perpetual change ensues.
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Michael Ajerman is a New York-born, London-based artist who completed his MA at the Slade School of Art in 2003 and also received the British Institute Award from the Royal Academy. His work is found in multiple international collections, and in 2018 he was awarded UCLA’s Kitaj Research Fellowship. His work aims to use paint to investigate feelings and the sensations of present moments. www.michaelajerman.com
Jon C Archdeacon is a London-based photographer. His work consists primarily of portraits and these draw from an encyclopaedic yet esoteric frame of references. He has recently embarked on a series of artist interviews with Emily Godwin for the fine art materials supplier AP Fitzpatrick. www.joncarchdeacon.co.uk
Sarah MK Archdeacon is an artist living in London. Her practice is rooted in collaboration and draws from a wide variety of sources. www.sarahmkarchdeacon.co.uk
Lena Brazin is a Slovakian-born contemporary figurative painter who is currently living and working in London. Her interest sits in the observation of the universal complexity of everyday existence, including its transcendental aspects. https://lenabrazin.com/
Paul Coombs is a Somerset-born artist and performer based in London. His practice is multidisciplinary and explories queer identity and experience. www.paulcoombs.co.uk/
Emma Cousin is a painter and drawer born in Yorkshire and based in London. She paints ideas of support, mobility and progress and uses metaphor as a visual vehicle to demonstrate the breach between the figurative meaning and the literal application. Often starting with a piece of wordplay, which sparks an imagistic response, she moves through literal, comedic, cartoon, psychological and imaginary visualisations and interpretations. www.emmacousin.info
Sarah Gillham is a multidisciplinary artist based in West Sussex. She employs both craft and sculptural materials and processes to explore the female experience and the body. www.sarahgillham.com
Emily Godwin is a London-based writer and journalist who has recently embarked on a series of artist interviews with Jon C Archdeacon for the fine art materials supplier AP Fitzpatrick and her blog The Sh*tshow Must Go On. She is eternally able to lower the tone. https://emilygodwin.substack.com/
Susie Hamilton lives and works in East London, represented by Paul Stolper Gallery in Museum Street. She makes paintings, drawings and prints, focusing on the theme of metamorphosis. http://www.susiehamilton.co.uk/
Thomas Hylander is a Danish artist working in London. He studied in Warsaw Academy PL, Manchester MMU and RCA. Primarily a painter, his practice has grown to include other multi-disciplinary mediums over the last decade. His work mostly grows from material improvisation, keeping the process open, throwing out big nets and feeding of what he finds. www.artsy.net/partner/blackbird-rook/artists/thomas-hylander
Mindy Lee is a Bolton-born, London-based artist who graduated from the RCA, MA Painting in 2004. Her figurative work uses painting and drawing to re-explore autobiographical narratives. She is the Head of Art and curator of Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London. www.mindylee.me
Sarah Lederman is a painter living and working in London. She graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2014 and has exhibited internationally. Her paintings explore fractured narratives and re-conceptualise memories of past people, places and moments. www.sarahlederman.com
Tim Spooner works in performance, painting and sculpture, aiming for new strong flavours which are strange and alluring. Fundamentally interested in unpredictability, his work is an exercise in balancing control with a lack of it in the handling of the materials and processes he is working with. He lives and works in Cornwall, UK.
Marianne Walker is a UK-based artist who makes three-dimensional drawings by hand in order to escape the rectangular page. Her works evidence her interest in animism and devotional sculpture as she seeks to give form to non-human avatars. https://axisweb.org/artist/mariannewalker
