Dissonance
Kelly Frank - Laura Porter
Curated by Adela Blanco
‘Dissonance’ brings together the work of London-based artists Kelly Frank and Laura Porter, whose work focuses on identity through the figurative and the non-figurative; the absent and the unknown. The exhibition gets its name from the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance - the mental toll of contradictory information and an unsettling state of mind.
Kelly’s vivid paintings explore the themes of identity, memory, and subjectivity. She uses layering to weave seemingly unrelated imagery to explore the fragility of human perspective. Kelly is fascinated by the malleability of memories and how it threatens the idea of the absolute truth. The canvas is regularly rotated, both in its creation and display to offer a unique experience on each day of the show.
Laura Porter’s sculptures are made with discarded clothing – a material that carries with it cyclical histories of land, worker, consumer, and waste - which she breaks down by hand and turns into a textiles pulp. Exploring the in-betweenness of repurposed materials and built spaces, and the man-made as a quasi-living entity, Laura re-imagines our material world as neither rigid nor organic - straddling the space between biological and human-made; rural and urban; lived and inactive.
Exhibition is open from the 7th - 12th July
10:00 am to 17:00 at Winns Gallery .
Aveling Centre,
LLoyd Park
E17 5JW
London
Private View Thursday 6th of July
18:00 - 20:30
The Artists
Kelly Frank
Kelly Frank is a young British painter whose figurative paintings explore the themes of identity, memory, and relationships. Kelly explores portraiture through the lens of a psychologist and investigator. She is concerned with telling honest and vulnerable stories, revealing the nuance of gesture and personality. She is fascinated by the conflict between our inner and outer worlds as individuals, families, and communities. Her psychological approach is evident when she speaks about her inspirations, ‘people are a process in which they simultaneously reveal and hide themselves.
Using orientation and surface her paintings have multiple perspectives revealing unsettling and conflicting meanings. She uses layering to morph and weave figures together and the canvas is regularly used in the production of her works. Through this process, the characters in the narrative begin to have a dialogue between themselves, and the painting is in constant flux. Her work is both autobiographical and anthropological, as she references family photos and iconic images from pop culture. Her play with scale breaks the boundary between the figurative form and landscape. Throughout her practice, colour is pivotal in differentiating between memories and forms and she uses of varying shades of crimson to give the paintings their lifeblood. In the subtlety of the red pigment, hidden fragments of the narrative reveal themselves.
Laura Porter
Laura Porter is a sculptor and curator based between South London and North Devon, having completed an MA in sculpture from UAL. She has been the recipient of funding from the British Council as part of their Connections Through Culture programme, A-n, and Arts Council England, as well as being commissioned to make work by The Plough Arts Centre, Left Bank Leeds and Arts & Culture Exeter. Laura is also the founding director of Studio KIND. CIC artist-led space in North Devon.
Working with discarded clothing – a material that carries with it cyclical histories of land, worker, consumer and waste – Laura breaks down the garments to create a raw material that is re-formed into solid structures, which are often a response to the environments in which she works.
Intrinsically grounded in the traditions of craft and textiles art, her practice pushes back against an automated, digitised world and hierarchies of labour and material, instead placing value in slow, low-tech processes performed by the body. Using her own body as a site of action and a renewable energy source, Laura undertakes labour-intensive tasks in order to critique the idea of productivity as a measurable output of effectiveness.
In a world where the longevity of human existence as we know it is becoming less certain, the clothing acts as a proxy for the body, and the sculptures become a confrontation, disrupting space; highlighting temporality and fleeting encounters, which underpin the need for new systems driven by our ecological environments and evolving lived/material experiences.
Laura’s practice explores the in-betweenness of repurposed materials and built environments and the energies of consciousness that have been absorbed by these over time. From invisible matter to formal structures, she’s interested in how the man-made can evolve and shift into a quasi-living entity; a reflection of the natural world on which it relies. She re-imagines our material world as neither rigid nor organic - straddling the space between biological and human-made; rural and urban; lived and inactive.