denise zygadlo
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RSA Annual Exhibition 2023
I was delighted to be pre-selected for the RSA Annual Exhibition 2023. My collage, Glorybound, was not hung, but was part of the online show.
Threads
The SSA kindly asked me to be the invited artist for their exhibition, Threads, in The Old Gala House, Galashiels from July to October 2024 and chose one hanging and 2 wall pieces. I was also asked to give a talk about my work at the Great Scottish Tapestry building in Galashiels. This was a wonderful opportunity and I was thrilled.
Collective15
VACMA exhibited the work of artists that had received awards over the last 15 years, in Peebles Museum over the summer months. I was fortunate to have 4 pieces in the show, 2 hangings and 2 canvas works.
SSA 126th Annual Exhibition
Delighted to be selected from such a huge number of submissions. My pencil drawing of a remaining glove is in good company. The exhibition runs till December 11th 2024
Infinite Summer
I am delighted to be part of the Society of Scottish Artists Annual Show at the MacLaurin Gallery, Ayr this year. Infinite Summer is a collage on canvas, showing my eldest son and his inglet bearing a self-like image, which becomes infinte, againast an endless summer and mimulus flowers.
Spring Fling 2023
This was my last Spring Fling, a grand finale and it was by far the best. I had over 180 visitors, blue skies and sales, perfect. Lots of new people and lots of friends from all stages of my life. The generous comments will keep me going for a long time! It has been a privilege to be part of Spring Fling on 11 occasions and a total pleasure.
Society of Women Artists 2022
Really pleased to be selected by SWA for the 2022 annual show in the Mall galleries, London in September with Loving the Yellow Buds of Broom, pencil drawing from the Wild Woman series
Campleline Make Do and Mend
Very excited to be sharing mending and darning stories and examples at Campleline before Dr. Sarah Thomas gives a reading of her latest book, Ravens Nest
Collage Residency at MERz Sanquhar
Delighted to be giving talks about my work to the participants of the Collage Residency at MERZ in September
Talk at Gracefield
Delighted to be giving a talk at the Claude Cahun exhibition at Gracefield Arts Centre on Saturday September 3rd at 2pm The image is a drawing I made inspired by a self portrait of Claude Cahun
Society of Women Artists 2022
Delighted to be selected for the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries, London this year with Loving the Yellow Buds of Broom, a pencil drawing. This piece came from the experience of a closer connection with nature during lockdown and a series of crazy photographs taken by my grandson Marcus Zygadlo
Making Her Mark at Tidespace, Kirkcudbright
Tidespace is anew pop-up gallery 3 doors from Kirkcudbright Galleries. Patti Lean and I have been invited to be the first exhibitors here showing a mixed work with an underlying common theme. The exhibition runs from June 1st to July 2nd, closing with an tea, cake and an artists talk by myself!
Unmute - SSA at Dunoon Burgh Halls
Finally a physical real exhibition of selected artists for the SSA at Dunoon Burgh Halls. Delighted to have Bound Blue in this show. June 17th - July 24th
Spring Fling at The Biscuit Factory 2022
Delighted to have been selected to exhibit at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle with Spring Fling on their 20th anniversary. I will be showing 3 works from my Jacket Detail series for the duration, fromMay 13th - July 24th.
RSA Annual Exhibition 2022
You can see my Antler Moment lV on https://www.rsaannualexhibition.otg/drawing/
SSA Annual Open 2021
Delighted to be selected for the SSA Open 2021 with For the Love of Lavender at RSA - disappointed not to make the opening. Seeing it online, I was impressed by the hanging and the fabulous catalogue design.
Birr Empty Column Collage Exhibition. August 13-20 2021
I was very excited to be inited to take part in the Empty Column Collage Exhibition in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. I took the theme of Hope and Vision, incorporating a child from the past and Greta Thunberg, a child of our present. They grow from a shining wrap against a whirl of chaos and the Birr giant telescope is represented at the top with a hand pointing upwards.
SSA satellite exhibition August 2021
As an SSA satellite member for Dumfries and Galloway I have 2 drawings in their satellite online exhibition, following on from my Wild Woman theme. This one is Antler Moment lV, the other drawing is Dancing with Broom.
SSA online exhibition - Instant
I was delighted to be included in a second SSA online exhibition - Instant - showing works involving photography in July 2021. This collage of Alison twirling is layered with bands of tracing paper against an image of the dress she is wearing.
SSA online exhibition
During lockdown period SSA has been posting online exhibitions on their website, focussing on different ways of working. This drawing - Loving the yellow buds of Broom - was included in their Re-Connect theme in May 2021
SSA Road Trip
As a satellite associate member of the SSA for Dumfries and Galloway I am delighted to be part of the SSA Road Trip, where all satellite members are connected by contributing to make one piece of work. I was the second to receive the parcel on its journey from the Borders and sent it on its way to Glasgow. I added a lace cuff to one of the hands that @Gill Walton had boldly started the work with.
Cloth for Collage January 17th 2021
Cloth for Collage is an online making session with Cample Line. I am delighted to be leading this afternoon session, looking at mark making and stitch to create cloth collage, using a variety of fabrics. https://fb.me/e/Kai5GvKq
Homage to Kept Cloth /Selvedge Magazine January 2021
Delighted to have Homage to Kept Cloth featured in the daily online blog of Selvedge Magazine in January 2021 https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/homage-to-kept-cloth
Homage to Kept Cloth 2020/2021
Homage to Kept Cloth is the fruit of a years investigation into treasured garments, a nostalgic and explorative look at the clothes we inherit or keep. The focus for this exhibition was the honeymoon dress belonging to my aunt and a jacket of my mothers. The show includes drawings and a series of prints on cloth, plus a video my son Rudi made of his studio visit and our Lockdown project. https://www.arushagallery.com/viewing-room/15-denise-zygadlo/
Coming Up For Air
Solo exhibition in OutPost Arts, Langholm from 4th March - 6th April Showing a selection of collages, silk hangings and unframed works by Denise Zygadlo. These collages are part of an ongoing collaborative project with Amy Marletta.
Time Spent Amongst Trees
SSA outreach exhibition at Meffyn Gallery, Forfar, Scotland in the autumn 2019
Utopia
The SSA outreach exhibition at Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, Scotland. Autumn 2019 and Kirkcudbright Galleries December 2019 - March 2020
As The Moon Sees It
The 3rd collaborative exhibition with Amy Marletta opened at 1:24 Sanquhar, Scotland on 21st December 2019 and will be open by appointment throughout January 2020. Collage works and textiles are displayed in this extraordinary space as part of a work in progress in preparation for the Hannah Hoch Art-House situated behind the Exhibition space. This will be completed in Spring 2020 and available for an overnight stay and total immersion in the Hannah Hoch experience.
Society of Women Artists
Tara Xl has been selected for the Mall Galleries, London exhibition of Society of Women Artists 2019. The show runs from 24th - 29th September.
stubborn grace
An exhibition of new collage works by Amy Marletta and Denise Zygadlo at Thomas Tosh in Thornhill, Dumfries. The title is taken from a quote by the surreal photomontage artist Claude Cahun. The exhibition runs from March 14th - May 14th 2019
Scottish Herald Magazine
Many thanks to Jan Patience for including me in December 1st Herald Magazine Arts section. Also lovely to meet Alistair Gordon and 3 of his students from Leith School of Art to talk about my work at @ArushaGallery. The exhibition runs until December 21st.
Sable Charm and Dumb Enchantment
I am delighted to be exhibiting at Arusha Gallery next Thursday 29th November - 21st December. This is the first time I have shown a group of my works in Edinburgh and I am also thrilled to be one of the artists on the new website with Arusha. I have been making this new work over the past 2 years following taking part in The Amorist at Arusha in 2016. It takes the form of collage transfer printed onto large canvases, using live photocopies of my own body combined with images of classical sculptures. I have also started using colour in the work after a long period of focusing on black and white.
Phantasm
A 3 day pop up exhibition of collages by Amy Marletta and myself in the new look Bakers Oven , High Street, Dumfries, now THE OVEN! Fun and colour are on the menu!! Opening Thursday 1st November 6pm-9pm - join us for a jolly swinging time! And the following 3 days Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11am-4pm for browsing and blether, everyone welcome.
Society of Women Artists
Tara Xll pencil drawing was selected for the SWA in The Mall Galleries, London from 25th September - 30th September. The PV is on 26th.
MacMillan Charity Art Exhibitio
I will be showing Loincloth lll at the Macmillan Art Exhibition , Bonhams, Edinburgh from 24th August - 26th August, PV 23rd August
RSA Open Summer Show
I was delighted to have Persephone ll accepted for the Royal Scottish Academy Summer Show this year.
Surge at Hawick Museum
Following a successful exhibition at Patriothall, Edinburgh, Upland is taking Surge to Hawick Museum. Being more spacious, the area offers an opportunity to show more than one work. I will be showing Rite and Reveil, live photocopies/collage transfer print on canvas.
Coast to Coast Print Exhibition May 19 - June 30
I have 2 paper litho prints in the Coast to Coast Print Exhibition at Gracefeiled Arts Centre Dumfries; Adrift l & ll. The exhibition is showing prints made by artists living in Dumfries and Galloway and Iceland and will travel to Reykavik, Iceland: September 29 -October 14
Summerhall TV Video
Summerhall TV called by my studio to make a mini video about my work. It is good to talk about ones practise and explain the process one uses, and this was a great opportunity to do both. It is also a great way to reach a broader audience and get ones work seen by many more people. This is the link to see the video: https://vimeo.com/263868773
Mentoring Project
Delighted to be working with Kyna Hodges as mentor for Upland Emerge Mentoring Project this Spring. The Project supports young artists to develop both creatively and professionally and provides a stepping stone between education and a career in the arts.
Open Studio and Xmas Sale
This Saturday, 9th December 2017, I am opening my studio to the public with a show of my current work and work in progress. There will also be a range of giclee prints and other artworks at special Xmas Offer prices and tea and biscuits to keep you going! All are welcome. I will be delighted to see you at Glenhead, Auldgirth, DG2 0TR 10am - 5pm
Surge at Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh
Early on our third morning I listened to Denise Zygadlo for seven minutes via recent podcast. Her voice welcome and familiar, her short narrative wise. Momentarily I am startled by the commitment embedded in this small statement as well as the physical effort and honesty such a process must entail. By Dr. Tina Fiske, extract from Surge booklet
Surge
Very pleased to e part of Upland exhibition Surge at Patriothall gallery Edinburgh 2nd - 10th September 2017
pecha kucha talk Lighthouse Gallery Glasgow
Presentation describing my work in terms of the cross over between art and design. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6BxYAN7MoM
This Will Ruin Everything
Celebrating 10 years, @recoat exhibit the work of 40 artists to explore the blurring of art and design. I have 2 pieces in this exhibition: retrieve, a silk hanging and loincloth lll The exhibition was extended for an extra week 14 July - 6 August
Amorist
Delighted to be taking part in Amorist at Arusha Gallery Edinburgh. I have started a new project on a larger scale working with transfer print on linen. The piece in the exhibition is Rebound ll and the show opens on Thursday 9th March 6pm - 8pm
VAS 2016
Tara Vll was selected for VAS 2016 open exhibition in the Royal Scottish Academy building.
Royal Glasgow Institute of FineArt annual open 2016
Very pleased to have been selected for RGI 2016, my first time.
SSA 2016 at RSA
Delighted to have had Loincloth lll accepted in this years SSA exhibition at RSA. The show runs till November 24th
Cupar Arts Festival 2016
Delighted to be invited to take part in Liminal, drawing exhibition at Cupar Arts Festival by Kirsty Whiten, who is co-curating the show. Looking forward to the launch on 18th June. My drawing is Retrieve, taken from original collage of photocopies printed on silk.
Spring Fling 2016
This year I will be studio 64! Please drop by and see the new drawings and projects I have been working on this year. The fabulous Spring Fling brochure is now available and packed full of goodies to delight you and show you the way.......
cloth matters
..the stove network, Dumfries very kindly housed my installation, cloth matters, 13th - 17th April in their fabulous new cafe. It consisted of 3 piles of cloth addressing daily life, ceremony and crisis. On the cafe tables customers could add a story or memory relating to cloth, by writing on a luggage label which was then placed in the growing scrapbook of cloth moments. Outside, hanging from the cherry trees, were completed labels for passers by to read. On 15th throughout the day I performed a 5 minute personal response to cloth in the window.
Stitch in Time
In 1996 I made a wall hanging as a community project in Thornhill, Dumfries. To celebrate the 20th anniversary I will be resident for 4 days at Thomas Tosh, where the hanging lives, to give it a clean and talk to visitors about the individual pieces made by around 50 people, including members of Wallace Hall Primary 7. Many stories and facts were collected before stitching everything together and quilting the finished piece.
Not To Scale
I am delighted to be curating Not to Scale, an exhibition of costumes by Alex Rigg, at Gracefield Art Centre Dumfries July - September 2016 Visitors will enter a world of fantastic and fabulous garments and the extraordinary thought process that integrates design, making and live performance. The costumes are made as art objects, to be seen at close quarters and Not to Scale will provide an insight into the various strands that come together to form the end product, with Alex on site and making for some of the time. A programme of associated events will make this very much an active exhibition and an intriguing experience. photo by Brian Hartley
Black and White exhibition at The Yellow Door
Black & White Exhibition - Private View Black & White Please join us for a glass of wine to launch a group exhibition of art works in black & white. Private View Friday 23rd October 6 - 9pm Join our facebook event Copyright © 2015 Yellow Door Group, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Yellow Door Group Shop & Gallery at The Yellow Door 16 Queen Street Dumfries, DG1 2JF United Kingdom
Environmental Art Fair Scotland 2015
The second EAFS happened around Morton Catsle looking out over the loch. Artists from Dumfries and Galloway, UK, Europe, Canada and maybe more contributed to walks, camp-fire talks, installations, meditations, performance and other creative activities - including a spherical clay oven made on site to bake pizzas and a communal bbq to cook and share food brought by the visitors - which later grew into a spectacular river of fire. Riders on horseback lined the horizon on Saturday evening, having travelled 7 hours to bring the healing waters from Moffat, ululating across the loch before making their way round it and, thrillingly, galloping up the hill. Various other journeys were made to the Castle; a river walk from Dumfries, cycle rides and I made a photo journey - as far as the eye can see - taking a photo at every bend in the road and numbering each station on posts, branches etc which I recorded in a zyg-zag book-in-a-box. I put together four other random boxes loosely based on the elements and alluding vaguely to some of the events in the programme to secrete around the area and I filled them with curious and apparently unrelated objects for the delight of the discoverer. The weekend closed with an impromptu performance halfway up the outside of the sunlit castle by a cabaret cross-dresser in a leather mini skirt and lycra shorts, knee length socks with diamente suspenders and the use of a chiffon scarf to accentuate hand gestures. Biographical songs eco-politically themed resounded across the water to bicycle powered music. Fabulously camp and deliciously bizarre. What better way to end a perfect couple of days. Image of an attempt at art in the landscape.
Urbane Art
Urbane Art opened their exhibition Retina last night as part of Scotlands festival of photography. Two of my canvas-works were selected for the show. Urbane Art, 25-27 Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh July 17th - July 31st 2015
Spring Fling 2015 - Studio 65
You are invited to Studio 65. Opening times: Friday 22nd May 5p.m. - 8p.m. Saturday 23rd May 10.30a.m. - 8p.m. Sunday 24th May 10.30a.m. - 8p.m. Monday 10.30a.m. - 8p.m. Spring fling 2015 in Berlin
Spring Fling is exhibiting in Berlin throughout April. Twelve artists from Dumfries and Galloway have been chosen to show their work in the Green Hill Gallery. Really excited to have two of my hangings in the showe and to take part in a short performance at the launch.
SSA 2014
Delighted to have 2 works accepted by SSA 2014 in RSA Edinburgh 5th - 20th December Loincloth 2 and Soles
Changing Room performance by The Electric Youth Theatre
Tuesday 21st October 6pm Electric Youth Theatre Munchies Street, Dumfries RSVP to hotwomen@gmail.com
Changing Room
I have been working on a project with Jo Hodges exploring the menopause. We ran 2 creative workshop days with 2 groups of women and have put together an exhibition using the work created on those days and further developments of our own. This will be an interactive exhibition and we hope folk will com along and spend some time looking through the details of the components that make up the show. The Dumfries part of the show will open with a short performance by members of The Electric Youth Theatre, as an ironic twist!
WRAP
Drop-in sessions - meet the artist: Saturday 19th July, Saturday 2nd August 2pm-4pm
Wrap opening
Performance Gallery 2 Gracefield Arts Centre Saturday July 12th at 1pm and 2pm Performers: Denise Zygadlo, Florencia Garcia Chafuen, Tara Hodgson. String quartet: Gongbo Jiang, Wen Wang, Robert Thurlow and Alex McQuiston. Composer: Rudi Zygadlo. Photo: Zvonko Kracun.
The wrapper and the wrapped
Interview with Mary Gladstone for artwork newspaper http://www.artwork.co.uk/text/9.php.
Wynden Tree
Another adventure with Oceanallover mushrooming in Dunbar and Loch Lomond. Fabulous locations and extraordinary extravagance with delightful performers and fabulous musicians - always a wonder! http://www.oceanallover.co.uk/Pages/Wynden.html
Spring Fling/Recoat Rural Mural Project
Enjoyed a totally new experience working with the talented mural painter Fraser Gray on a gable end in Keir, Dumfries. This is part of a new project for Spring Fling in partnership with Recoat, bringing visitors to unusual corners of Dumfries and Galloway where artists abound! http://vimeo.com/95804445
Kalopsia Gallery Textile Illustration Exhibition
Kalopsia Gallery at Ocean Terminal, The Shore, Leith, Edinburgh showing textile illustration in their next show 14th - 30th March 2014 I have 2 drawings from my derriere series in this show
Preparing for Wrap : Zvonko Kracun
Friday 28th February Zvonko worked all day taking photographs of my work in preparation for Wrap and a new printed hanging. Beautiful sunny day at last.
Spring Fling Rural Mural Project
This year Spring Fling has teamed up with Glasgow based street art collective Recoat to create the Rural Mural project - 5 Spring Fling artists will be working with 5 urban artists to create artworks across Dumfries and Galloway. I was teamed with Edinburgh based mural painter Fraser Gray for a mural in Keir village - brilliant fun!
Performance at the launch of Cloth and Memory 2
Helen Cerina, an Italian choreographer, created a performance specifically for the launch of Cloth and Memory 2, an exhibition of 23 international textile artists, at Salts Mill, Saltaire, Yorkshire on 17th August 2013. The performers wore woolen sweaters that had been sewn together, restricting their movements or forcing them to move together. I took part in this performance with Helen and 2 other performers - a 20 year old and an 80 year old - accompanied by the local brass band, in the cobbled courtyard outside the mill. The age difference created an added tension and sensitivity to the piece. The performance ended with an invitation to the audience to join in a celebration of rock and roll! http://transparentboundaries.com/blog/2013/08/30/transparent-boundaries-at-cloth-memory-2/ www.clothandmemory.com cloth and memory 2 home page Wrap
Solo show at Gracefield Arts Centre Dumfries 12 July - 9 August 2014 A development of Involutus Memet with new work, new performance and new music in Gallery 2 Dying Villages - the artefacts
An exhibition at Catstrands, New Galloway featuring a project by poet Tom Pow, incorporating a series of collaborative poems/collages by Tom and myself. The exhibition will continue till June 29th Appraisal by Jeremy Carlisle
Appraisal by Jeremy Carlisle is up online at above address - very pleased! http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/3370928 Pollen
have a look at : www.oceanallover.co.uk/pages/POLLEN.html Spring Fling 2013 mentoring scheme
Laura Perry Mentored by Denise Zygadlo Specialising in printed textiles, Laura Perry graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a BA Honours in Textile Design in 2011. Inspired by architectural structures and their range of colours, Laura likes to contrast harsh lines and geometric shapes with soft fluid fabrics. Now 24, Laura spent periods of her childhood with family in Dumfries and Galloway and continues to find inspiration in the region, travelling from her home in South Ayrshire. Laura, in the run up to Spring Fling will be mentored by Denise Zygadlo an artist whose primary interest is the exploration of the relationship between the human body and cloth. Laura will show her work during Spring Fling 2013.
Scottish Society of Artists 2013
The annual show of SSA opens next Friday 1st March at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. 2 works accepted - Rest 3 and Rest 4, both transfer prints on canvas.
Involutus Memet - a critical appraisal by Jeremy Carlisle
Photocopies of the artist’s body variously wrapped in cloth then transfer-printed onto chiffon, canvas and calico make up series of works: hangings, wall pieces, and a ‘book of folds’. These were on show at The Mill on the Fleet during September 2012, Gatehouse of Fleet, Galloway.The title of the exhibition, Involutus Memet (wrapped up in myself) gives the spectator a clue to the meaning of these works. They are personal and intensely felt. Many have an ephemeral aspect but their presence is powerful. They resonate and stay in the mind.
A source of affirmation for Denise Zygadlo was the work of the conceptual artist Helen Chadwick, 1953 - 1996, a friend of the artist’s. Helen Chadwick’s work explores the relationship between the body and our sense of self, the body and memory. On completing the work for Involutus Memet Denise recognised that although her work was conceived without conscious reference to other works and was original in its inspiration, a record of a personal and particular journey, a form of autobiography if you will, there was a kind of kinship, affinity with the work of a valued friend and companion. Two works of Chadwick’s that came to mind in this respect were ‘Ego Geometria Sum’ 1983 and ‘Of Mutability’ 1994.
‘Involutus Memet’ begins with the artist’s own body, which is then represented in different works in different ways. All the images in the exhibition start their life by the artist laying her head, hand, arm, elbow, shoulder, back, legs, feet, etc., onto the glass bed of a photocopier. We are reminded here that we are physical beings subject to physical laws by the evidence in the prints of weight pressing onto a hard surface and the effect of that pressing on soft tissue. In the resulting images you also feel the weight of the skeleton– bones are surprisingly heavy, you can see the pressure of the bones beneath the skin. Sometimes it seems to age the body where the skin has been pressed into lines and wrinkles. You would normally associate these signs with the elderly. The artist is not elderly. A kind of metamorphosis is at work here too then. In contrast to this weight, in some of the pieces the figure has become weightless (a very different metamorphosis) this is particularly apparent in the four large hangings.
So, the process involved in making the work results in a kind of pressing. This is something in our normal lives we have no release from. It takes effort to pull ourselves around. We fall. The very word ‘fall’ is our culture’s metaphor for banishment from paradise. Weightiness, earth, imprisonment. How do we deal with this weight? We have the gift of movement, of energy, we can resist, for a time we can swim against it. We celebrate this movement in different ways. Given the lightness, near weightlessness of the chiffon the images of the hangings are printed onto they lend themselves to dreams of our selves being weightless, free of gravity. In a not dissimilar way this brings to mind one of the reasons why swimming is, for many people, so addictive; for the time we swim we are free of the tyrant gravity. Here though the figures swim in space.
The four works on chiffon hung from ceiling beams are large, approximately 9’ x 5’. In the Mill they were at right angles to each other but with space to walk around and between them. With a breeze coming in through open windows or simply by walking closely past them, the chiffon ripples, waves and sways. The images on the hangings are different views of the whole figure. They were produced by taking a photograph of collaged photocopies laid out on a large sheet of paper. The resulting photograph was then the source for the finalised digital prints on the chiffon, the dark tones of which are a deep sepia in colour.
A linking motif running through all the works in the exhibition is the relationship of the body to cloth. Whether it is in the detail of a hand or elbow in the smaller wall-works or the whole figure in the hangings; muslin, wool, tulle, these fabrics cover, wrap, lie beside hand, arm, neck, back etc. The figure is bound and unbound.
The human forms on the tall chiffon works are life-size. In some respects, at first glance, they suggest a cubist visual language, or possibly the grammar of photomontage works. The flat, overlapping pages of the original photocopies trigger such ideas. However these works have a language of their own. Moving, rippling in space as they do, they are not exclusively pictorial. They are kinetic sculptures as well as representational images. This duality is pertinent to our presence in the world. We exist physically but we also have a presence in the minds of others and in our own minds.
As mentioned the four hangings are four different views of the figure. The hanging of the front view of the artist has a clear symmetry, arms held out to the sides, feet together and head thrown back – of the head all you can clearly see is the under-lit neck and jaw. The head is thrown back into darkness. The feeling, with bands of muslin wrapping arms, hands and a leg isof a figure floating. The transparency of chiffon emphasises this feeling. You can choose to look straight through this body to the room and surroundings beyond.
The clothed body, the wrapped body, all carry associations, moods, cultural messages with them. This is a theme that runs through much of Zygadlo’s work. We are what we wear, what we wrap around our bodies. There is the aesthetic dimension to clothes as well - the movement of cloth, the sway of materials and their changing patterns of folds have an energy and life of their own. At the same time they are expressive of the energy and life of the body beneath.
Throughout history and the history of depiction, of art also, the clothed figure has been a vehicle for expression. The clothing and textiles of renaissance paintings and sculptures, for instance, were valued not just, where appropriate, for their gorgeousness, their role as symbols of power and status, their decorative qualities or by contrast when the subject required it, the raggedness of garments expressive of wretchedness, disease and poverty but also as expressive forms in their own right. I think Zygadlo’s contemporary works are linked to and are a part of this tradition, they embody and express different states of being. We are more than one person, our thoughts and emotions are hugely various, our bodies change. We are well and unwell. We are active and we rest. We are clothed and unclothed.
In the hanging of the back view of the figure a veil is lifted and extends into space beyond the head, as though caught by the wind. A kind of visual pun that is apparent in all the hangings. They are pictorial illusions, representations of cloth and the clothed figure but at the same time they also actually all exist as real cloth, as things in themselves and move in the same time frame and space as we do. Also in this work a child’s woollen, christening shawl has been wrapped around the back of the figure. Lace evening gloves are worn. These clothes carry stories. How evocative they are when we catch sight of such garments, the triggering of trains of thought, of family relationships, of memories and associations. The rites of passage we all witness and participate in, the christenings, marriages, anniversaries and funerals of our society. While looking at this work and works like it we experience a form of time travel, an escape from the body in the present. We leave it behind and float off into other realms as these chiffon figures appear to. Free to drift in our recollections and memories of particular events, to revisit the past and to understand and see that past in new and different ways.
The figures of these two hangings, a front view and the back view exist in some indefinable space. They aren’t anchored to the earth, to the ground. Feet rest on nothing. The works are not reducible to simple interpretations. They are more ambiguous, complicated. We could be sharing the space with phantoms or ghosts. Swathed in muslin the figures also bring to mind entombment scenes, ‘his body was taken and wrapped in a linen cloth.’ This is a form of free association, of conjecture that makes reference to the history of our Judeo-Christian culture. This doesn’t necessarily reflect the artist’s intentions. That said, intended or not iconography is an unavoidable factor in any figurative work and at some juncture all contemporary figurative work will be seen in the context of art’s histories and will inspire intended or unintended interpretations, musings.
The two remaining hangings, a side view of the body and a front view of the artist in a stepping pose are more directly expressive. The human body is capable of almost endless configurations. Formalised movement: ritual, performance, dance is, I think, another reference in these works. At the opening of the exhibition the artist and a collaborator gave a performance accompanied by music composed for the occasion. The hanging which represents a side-view of the figure could be interpreted as having the aspect of a still from a dance video - a long way from the iconography of entombment. The artist’s right arm is stretched at full length above the head, hand, with fingers splayed out, pointing straight upwards. One leg is bent as though in a dance step. There are dramatic jumps between the dark space surrounding the figure and the light of the figure itself and the light tones of the bands of muslin. This is typical of the striking contrasts in all the chiffon works between the clothed body and the darkness of the surrounding space. This effect of dark space, emptiness was arrived at by draping black cloth over the arm, foot, hand, etc., that was being photocopied. As the light washed under the glass it faithfully and paradoxically reproduced the inky nothingness of the cloth, achieving the resulting powerful presence of nothing. Is there an intention here to direct our imagination to the notion that we are essentially, within the measurable, finite limits of our physical selves, insubstantial and insignificant almost to the point of invisibility against the dark?
In the final hanging the figure is expressive of strong emotion. The head is held in both hands seemingly in some tension or anguish. The figure’s right leg is bent up into the body, the left leg stretches down into waves of cloth. Here it is as though we are looking at a foot through water. There are passages in these works that are simply extremely beautiful. The photocopier capturing the airy lightness of forms and the fine geometry of folded waves of the lightest cloth imaginable.
Contemplative and calm (the front and back). Dramatic and anguished (side view and head-in-hands). Both sets are constructed, made, by the addition of one photocopy to another until a figure is completed. At one moment these sheets are like strange weightless blocks of stone; stacked, balanced, tilted and horizontal in a clearly delineated fashion or again possibly they suggest giant playing cards. Blocks or cards, their arrangement is anything but arbitrary. Whether it is the tapered edges of the pages representing the arms in the ‘front pose’ that accentuate the feeling of an upwards movement or the clear almost architectonic structure evident in the arrangement of the ‘distressed’ figure - there is an anchored stability here that provides a startling and effective foil to the flow, movement, of body and cloth.
These chiffon works are delicate and subtle. At the same time they are powerful and they repay the time you spend with them. They haunt the imagination.
In contrast to the tall chiffon ‘mobiles’ inhabiting the centre of the gallery the ‘Veil Works’ and the ‘Canvas Works’ are more discreet. They are relatively still, quiet, anchored to the gallery wall. The ‘veil’ works are a series of small wall pieces, mostly no more than 12 inches in any one dimension. Layers of fabric are sewn and buttoned. You look through fabric to transfer-printed images of a heel or arm, or elbow say, alongside or wrapped in cloth - the play of looking through real cloth to an image of cloth. These veil works and four box-framed works where images have been transfer-printed onto old primed canvases that have been removed from their stretchers, are different in mood from the hangings. They are fixed and in the case of the framed images (the canvas works) are conventionally, as a consequence of the framing, at a slight remove, distance from us. As images they remain on one plane. They are, being of cloth and canvas, tactile but you can’t walk round them, they don’t share our space as is the case with the hangings. At the same time we know these arms, feet, hands, elbows, heels, are the artist’s. They aren’t anonymous. We respond to this: the lines, scars, wrinkles, pores, creases that leave their traces on the human body belong to an individual. The various histories of the human body are here in detail, in close up. These images too are monochrome, though with one or two exceptions, with less contrast than the hangings. This also gives them a quieter feel.
The medium of photocopying used in all the works in the show carries with it the passing of time. The photocopy makes permanent the moment. A fixed point in time reminds us that actually there is no stopping of time. The days and years leave their mark. There is one image on canvas, ‘Rest 4’ where the position of the arms seems to depict a figure resting. The artist lying on her back, arms above her head. All we actually see in the finalised picture are the arms at rest, palm of the one hand visible facing upwards. The other hand is under and supporting the forearm of the other arm. We need to stop, to lie down. Oddly by just focusing on this detail we are somehow made more aware of the nature of rest, undistracted by a face, by the figure. The making of these canvas works was labour intensive. The photocopy was transferred to the canvas using a dylon solution. Once dry the paper was peeled and rubbed away by hand leaving the image fixed to the canvas. This process occasionally leaves its marks where the ink is worn thin, edges become frayed. This process, it seems to me echoes the elements endlessly brushing past us throughout our lives. Streams of air, light, water and dust. Rubbing, soothing, scratching, wearing away, comforting. Warm, cold, rough and smooth. Everything leaves its mark on us. Our bodies are surfaces the world around us writes on. There are no shawls, veils or gloves here to remind us of the theatre our clothed bodies are involved in, more the mood is one of the passing of time. An elegy.
The most intimate work in the exhibition is the ‘Book of Folds’, a book of calico pages with images measuring mere inches in the centre of the pages. You look into these small pictures of folded cloth. It is only after a while that you realise that in two images, hidden amongst the cloth are glimpses of the sole of a foot in one and the back of a leg in the other. In this sense they continue the theme apparent in the canvas pieces. To my mind there is something of the spare, the simple, the unadorned in the feel of the relationship between body and cloth in all the images in the exhibition. Something essential. Apart from anything else there is no fine tailoring here, no colour, no velvets, brocade, quilted material. Rather the body and its clothing are timeless, they aren’t specific to a particular era, fashion or culture. They don’t pull you towards a narrow reference. Here arms are simply at rest with the comfort of linen, of muslin, of wool. This works because you aren’t reminded of associations that would be distracting. In conversation the artist said something extraordinary about the making of the work in the exhibition. It triggered a memory of an experience soon after the birth of her first child. Looking at the baby’s arm as she held her she couldn’t distinguish it from her own arm. She had a similar feeling while making the works shown in ‘Involutus Memet’. That when making the work and looking at it was as though she was somehow outside herself looking back at her self. It is a very strange and privileged experience to be momentarily elsewhere, to be a spectator to your own body. Looking at her baby the emotion was one of wonder, of complete identification with another. As though there was nothing to distinguish between herself and the object of her attention. This is only a shadow away from a very different out-of-body experience – the sense of depersonalisation experienced in moments of acute stress or anxiety when you seem to feel that your body is something alien to you, as though you are at an un-bridgeable distance from it, not in a neutral or disengaged way but with real alarm and fear. The exhibition contains both dark and light worlds. The body is dealt with for the most part in non-specific ways, as though a book where events aren’t narrowly interpreted or defined for us. This leaves room to consider that the world around is a frightening as well a comforting place. What control do we have over our health? We age and die. We are aware of and anguish at the ill health, suffering and death of those close to us. Our own minds can take us to dark places in unpredictable acts and strategies of self-damage, despair and aggression. We all carry a considerable amount of mental baggage around. It is a continual process to attempt to achieve some degree of equilibrium. Art helps us in this endeavour by reminding us who we are and how we can reflect from a distance on the complexities of our natures.
Photocopying your own human frame you can’t control or predict with any exactitude what the image will look like. There is no viewfinder or screen to check the composition before the button is pressed. This must enhance the surprise you feel as the machine rolls out its copy and you see it for the first time; a foot – how indescribably strange. A back, mine but now detached from me but it is more me than me as in fact I can’t actually see my own back. This one I can see as though you were creating your own body, giving birth to yourself. Then you set about building it into different forms and poses. Inspired by these works we can imaginatively make this journey ourselves. What is it like to see oneself as others see us? Would it be with some tenderness, compassion, awe? This fragile, ephemeral being that feels things so strongly.
Included in the exhibition were four haikus written by the artist. One line of each haiku came to the artist in a dream. This ‘given’ line was then added to in order to make up a completed haiku. It is a game for the visitor to the exhibition to guess which line was the dream line.
‘she lay unlinen like a dog
No comfort just the dust
Worn threadbare’
All the haikus relate to the visual work in their imagery. This combining of words from a dream and of being added to when awake echoes the physical work. We are awake, we clearly see the world around us but at the same time we dream on and this dreaming affects the way we see the world and the way we make art.
This is a remarkable body of work, pun intended. By using her own body, her self to make art the artist has given us the opportunity to reconsider who we are and what we are. We emerge from the stream of life, have a life, develop an identity, a self, a history. Then we disappear. Occasionally a footprint in the mud is fossilised or a body is preserved in a peat bog - these are prints of a kind. ‘Involutus Memet’ is just such a print.
Jeremy Carlisle
Photograph by Ken Smyth
Involutus Memet
Show continues till 23rd September at The Mill Exhibition Centre, Gatehouse of Fleet. The Mill also has an excellent riverside cafe and terrace, gift shop andbookshop Admission Free
Involutus Memet Performance
Collaboration with Florencia Garcia Chafuen Rigg to music by Rudi Zygadlo From 2.30pm at The Mill, Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway www.linkedin.com/pub/florencia-garcia-chafuen-rigg rudi-zygadlo.tumblr.com www.millonthefleet.co.uk
Involutus Memet
Forthcoming show of new work - silk hangings and canvasworks in the perfect venue of The Mill Exhibition Centre where 4 tall windows cast natural light on a large open space overlooking the river. Taking advantage of the size of the gallery area and its wooden floor, I have been working on a short performance with Florencia Chafuen Garcia Rigg to music created by Rudi Zygadlo.
Involutus Memet
Solo show at Mill on the Fleet Exhibition Centre New works / performance 18th August - 23rd September 2012
The SSA Prize
Prizes Awarded during SSA 2012 The SSA Prize Denise Zygadlo - Receive 1
SSA Annual Show
The 115th Annual Open Exhibition The Royal Scottish Academy Building The Mound, Edinburgh Private View Friday, 3 February (5 – 9pm) Exhibition Open Saturday, 4 February – Thursday 1 March http://www.s-s-a.org/
Axolotl Gallery, Dundas Street, Edinbrugh
Christmas show starts Friday 2nd December with drinks and mince pies from 6-9pm
SSA Professional members exhibition
Eastwood Park Gallery Rouken Glen Rd, Glasgow G46 6UG 3rd November - 1st December
Achtung!
Rudi Zygadlo - Achtung! September 2011 Pencil drawing for record labelhttp://rudi-zygadlo.tumblr.com/
SSA Professional Members Exhibition
Glasgow Art Club 185 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4HU8th - 29th August
Exhibition Opening Times : Monday - Friday 10am - 8pm
Invited Guest Artists Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston, Philip Reeves
