TACTUS 7

About

Tactus brings together seven altruistic artists to raise awareness and funds for their preferred charity. ‘Tactus' meaning touch, in Latin and pulse in music, was chosen to signify how we communicate in the visual and physical when verbal means are not an option. It has a strong resonance in the crucial work of The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in Putney. Launching the Garfield Weston Art Room for patients and their families, it is proven that art like music can bridge the gap in verbal communication where an accident or birth defect has eroded this connection. For this reason, much of the show has a tactile element from the mood provoking impasto works of painters Bracken and Walker to Claire Burke's contemplative gold leaf panels — a shimmering version of Burri's ‘Cretto' works. Sculpture plays a leading role in the exhibition with James Calvert's life size bronze warriors tempered by Lynn Warren's feminine abstract shapes. Continuing this theme is RSA Fellow and human rights campaigner Hazel Reeves whose portraits give voice to those excluded by class, ethnicity, disability or age. And finally, Olivia Ferrier's ‘Alchemy' series, featuring the much maligned crow, often viewed as an omen, now given a sympathetic audience and cast in bronze using found objects. Amongst the diverse arrangement of subjects, one thing is clear and that is the artists' commitment to the cause with 20% of all sales going to the RHN.