CELLSPACE

About

STYX Projects London is pleased to introduce ‘Cellspace', featuring the works of Glasgow-based artists Freya Gabie and Nicola Stead. Interpreting the idea of enclosed space, Stead and Gabie explore the metaphysical sense of detainment and internalisation. By focusing on the inherent awareness of externality in order to define a territory, ‘Cellspace' draws upon the Deleuzian idea of creating a foothold in the cosmos though the representation of abstract and literal space. Both Stead and Gabie explore an awareness of cosmic perpetuality and the subsequent creation of limitations and areas within this boundlessness. Referring to the everyday and the mundane, ‘Cellspace' nevertheless contains elements of other worldliness; creating a disquiet-ing sense of the uncanny. The artists present images and sensations that are simultaneously transient and immortal. Through a series of photographic images, Stead draws our attention to the psychological space of memory. The ability of the memory to transcend time and physical experience can be represented through the recording of emotional responses and actions in the present time. Although the narratives remain ambiguous, as if submerged in an individuals' consciousness, there is an external representation that can be translated through collective memories and the individual experiences of the viewer. This transference of ideas paradoxically draws the artist and viewer together, whilst acknowledging their distance. Gabie's installations interpret space through physical exploration. Each piece evokes an exterior landscape and draws on the starkness and impenetrability of the building itself, infusing the awareness of the outer world with the very fabric of the architecture. The materiality of ‘Spill' inhabits the space and yet transcends it. The rubber grows from a large black ‘spill' into an organic form, recalling the strength and transience of a tree. The fragility and power of the natural world is represented though shapes and structures that extend from the walls and ground, both complying with and testing their environment. Although Gabie's works are motionless, they have a quality of mobility. They mould into the space around them whilst having an independence of their own, creating an awareness of the temporality of the space they inhabit. Both Stead and Gabie present facets of the domestic as residual evidence of a psychological awareness of the limitlessness of time and space. The works occupy an undefined border between a place of safety and of uncertainty. ‘Cellspace' challenges the perception of the territories and spaces we create and inhabit, and consequently destabilises our sense of familiarity. Freya Gabie was born in South west England and studied Sculpture at Chelsea Collage of Art. Since graduating she has exhibited in numerous shows throughout the UK and in 2009 was artist in residence at the Meantime Space, resulting in the solo show ‘Desirelines'. She has been short listed for the Open West, Artsway and the Darbyshire Award. She is currently based in Glasgow. Nicola Stead initially studied Art and Design before going on to graduate with a degree in Photography from the Glasgow Metropolitan College in 2001. Since then she has been working in photography commercially for various publications, while simultaneously pursuing her own artistic projects. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Glasgow Film Theatre as well as group shows in the Transmission Gallery, The Drawing Room and Mongomery's in Glasgow.