In Small House Two:
April 2024 – Dave Farnham: Predatory Masterpieces: A Feline’s Gallery of Triumphs (or Catnip and Carnage)
“Showcasing a unique and intriguing study that unveils the secret nocturnal exploits of Dave’s cat. An uncanny house of horrors – a journey through the unexpected gifts that his cat brings home. These effigies, born from the unexpected prey his cat claims as his own, serve as haunting artifacts, each a tale of the untamed killer that lurks within his seemingly domesticated demeanour. A visual narrative that unfolds through a series of intriguing sculptures – a showcase of trophies that invites the viewer to tread the line between fascination and trepidation.”
Statement: “The main focus of my studio-practice is an investigation into the deconstruction of figurative sculpture, using the collection and extraction of medical data.
“However, I have recently embarked upon an unplanned side-project which revolves around exploring the intricate relationship between humans and animals, particularly our domesticated companions. By capturing deceased animals in three-dimensional form, I aim to highlight the significance of their lives and emphasize the intrinsic value that they hold.
“I begin by carefully 3D scanning the animals that my cat brings home, preserving their forms with great respect and precision. Through the 3D printing process, I then transform these scanned images into tangible sculptures, each detail a tribute to the uniqueness of the individual animal.
My work is driven by a desire to showcase the beauty and uniqueness of each animal that my pet cat brings to me, and also to annoy my partner by storing dead rodents in our freezer.”
Extended: Exteriors of SHG1&2:
CONSTELLATIONS is a mural created for the exterior elevations across Small House Galleries 1&2 for semi-permanent* display by Marisa Polin
*(Until May 2024)
Recently finished, and still worth mentioning…
1-7/8 x (d) 1/2 ins. February – March 2024 – Seema Shah: Something Big and Invisible
A house-wide installation of a melange of small mixed media collage on paper and matchboxes, cut-up and erasure poetry, and found objects, which function as self-contained set-pieces in each of the rooms, communicates the varying layers of conscious and unconscious awareness of the human psyche across the various floors (and in dark hidden corners), and also as a three-dimensional mixed-media collage across the entirety of the house. Take a look…
December 2023 – January 2024 (EXTENDED – end date TBC) Susan Francis: PLASTIK NATURE – The Harmony of Disagreeing Things
‘Plastik Nature – the harmony of disagreeing things’ draws on dystopian worlds created in miniature dioramas, in which “discarded plastic objects, and found imagery have combined to suggest spaces of melancholy, where temporal shifts occur in both colour, object and design, suggest at one time future, at another past”. Plastic Nature is a term coined by and theory arrived at by the “early 17th century Cambridge Platonist, Ralph Cudworth [who] attempted to reconcile the rational, mechanical world of the Enlightenment with an inspired and spirit filled world of material and matter.” A Small House Two installation with sculpture, optics and video.
Excerpt from Francis’ Artist Statement:
“A recent master’s degree in theology, imagination and culture, has fuelled this interest in meaning making, the work touching on a quasi and incomplete belief system, concocted from a mix of memory, experience, and found imagery. The house, its electric collections, worn materials and liminal spaces however, is a base of familiarity I never move far from.”
December 2023 – January 2024 – Susan Francis: #Sleepingsquad
One of two solo shows by Susan Francis during this period, #Sleepingsquad was a hand-drawn analog of the digital space examining the permeability of the home in relation to the global phenomena of 24/7 voluntary surveillance/voyeurism which many member of the online #Sleepingsquad hashtag community use(d) as a tool to combat the loneliness of lockdowns and the isolation of disabling conditions.
November 2023 – Chrissie Stewart: ACRID (with Yvette Driver)
Featuring Chrissie Stewart’s paintings in the top 3 floors of Small House Two, with her gif film and Yvette Driver’s miniature interiors and props in the basement ‘Big Choke’ bar and smoking lounge.
September/October 2023 – Marisa Polin: LIMINAL
A solo exhibition of small-scale steel sculptures and vibrant, geometric 2&3D forms across two houses, shown online and in a solo show within a London gallery space, adjacent her full-scale sculpture and installation.
July/August 2023 – Ali Darke: AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
An exhibition of hauntingly amorphous sculptures by Ali Darke in which “echoes of trauma, loss and psychic fragmentation are viscerally expressed in materiality and form.”
June 2023 – Poppy Whatmore: QUICK AND DIRTY
Maquettes in plaster, clay, wood and ceramic by Poppy Whatmore MRSS, reflecting on the function and significance of the maquette in her process of making sculpture.
Plus BONUS INTERVIEW!
May 2023 – Florencia Durante: 17 Years, Fragments
The brilliant architecturally & sculpturally-minded RCA-educated Argentinian fine art photographer Florencia Durante will be creating new work specific to the scale of Small House Gallery.
Small House Gallery 