Nature in art. Heolstor by Ally Mellor. Photo: Daisy Bowie-Sell
A new exhibition about the connection between art and nature was facing possible setbacks this week as forces of nature made the delivery of artworks very difficult.
The exhibition is due to open on January 15 and is hosted by east London curating company Purge Projects. But co-founder and artist Anna Crystal Stephens said delivery vans had warned them the ice and snow were restricting their ability to deliver on time.
Changing the Nature is the name of the exhibition bringing together seven artists. It centres on the way nature permeates art today. Stephens said: “We’ve been having trouble getting the art works – I was hoping that nature would permit the work to go ahead, seeing as the exhibition is about our connection with nature, but the force of nature affects everything. It will be difficult to get audiences here as well, which again shows how at the mercy of nature we are.”
She added: “I’m sure we’ll be ok for the weekend though, it should have all cleared up by then!”
Curators and co-founders of Purge Projects Zoe Macdonald and Anna Stephens hope to present artwork that either sub-consciously or consciously, has tapped into people’s growing concern with the environment.
Artist Ally Mellor is one of the artists presenting a piece at the exhibition. Heolstor is a glass box filled with steam and lifted onto a plinth with miniature trees lit from inside. Mellor takes inspiration from the Old English language which has many different words for darkness.
Stephens says of Mellor’s work: “It’s an artist description of something that she perceives in nature, with regards to the atmosphere. But she uses materials to take the place away from where it would usually be found and brings it to where we can experience it from a different perspective.”
Purge Projects is a new art company founded by Zoe Macdonald and Anna Crystal with the aim to bring new and established artists together and to use their experience as artists themselves and put that into curating. “We wanted to organize exhibitions that we through were interesting. We wanted to explore curatorial themes – we have all these ideas which feed into the way we organize exhibitions and Purge Projects is a base where we could have these ideas.”
Purge Projects also aims to run community workshops to go alongside each of their exhibitions.
The private view of Changing the Nature is on at Vulpes Vulpes on the 15th January from 6pm – 9pm and the exhibition then runs until the 31st January. See www.purgeprojects.co.uk and www.vulpesvulpes.org for more information.
