Victoria Rance describes two fascinating shows coming up in June.
Archipelago – Islands of the Wetlands is curated by Ruth Calland. She invited eight of us on two consecutive weekends to meet up at Walthamstow Wetlands, assigning to each one of us a Wetlands island to name and work from. Although we couldn’t actually visit them, they became the foundation for a huge variety of work. I named mine ‘The Isle of Gods’. I painted it, wrote a ballad about the it, and imagined visiting it as a bird. It is a huge heronry, with a colony of grey herons nesting on the tree tops. This is a vital seasonal activity in the life of the grey herons which I had only ever seen alone on Deptford Creek.
Exhibition dates 1st to 30th June
Private View and Film Premiere Sunday 2nd June 1pm to 4pm
Edwin Aitken, Ruth Calland, Annabel Dover, Enzo Marra, Edgar Racy, Victoria Rance, Mimei Thompson, Jonathan Waller, your paradise island
Mezzanine Gallery, Walthamstow Wetlands, Forest Road, N17 9NH
5 mins walk from Tottenham Hale tube station.
Open daily 9.30am to 5pm admission free
https://walthamstowwetlands.com
Sleepy Heads
Sleepy Heads curated by Mindy Lee explores the figure in relation to the unconscious, fantasies, masks, memories, dreams, autobiography, sleeping, sleepers, and death, creating an intimate and unnerving dormitory of artworks. She assigned to me a cabinet in which I have placed a selection of small sculptures made over the last twenty years in a tableau, centred around ‘Thorness Sleeping’.
Exhibition dates June 12th to July 11th
Private View Tuesday 11th June 6pm to 8.30pm
Rebecca Fortnum, Jane Hayes Greenwood, Aly Helyer, Mindy Lee,
Cathy Lomax, Alicia Reyes McNamara, Hannah Murgatroyd,
Victoria Rance, Freddie Robins, Gabriela Schutz, Sarah Sparkes, Debra Swann
Open daily 9am to 9pm admission free
Blyth Gallery,
Level 5 Sherfield Building, Imperial College,
Off Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/music-and-arts/visual-arts/blyth-gallery/