About
Start from the beginning. A is for Apple.
The hand traces a diagonal line.
The mouth opens.
An object is half complete, about to fall.
Almanac is delighted to present A P E L, a solo show by London-based artist Fay Nicolson.
For her exhibition at Almanac, the artist builds upon an ongoing investigation into the structuring roles of art, education and documentation, and ways of contaminating the gaps between systems of knowledge transferal. The exhibition's title refers to the taxonomy of language and its role is structuring learning, with APEL referring to a framework of valuing alternative educational experience (Accreditation of Prior Experience and Learning).
Nicolson uses repetition and âplay sense' within the artist's studio to unfold binary discussions around language and making, between tacit and implicit knowledge. Strategies of recording and material displacement give form to moments of hesitation employing repetitive processes that fluctuate between practice and productivity.
Where the grid is a fiction used to denote spaces of equality, divorcing objects from contexts beyond their own qualities, this exhibition is an exploration of the weave, as an embodied structure. Pull one thread and the rest of the image is implicated, fraying at the edges of reality, its narrative unravels. Operating in the tentative space joining then - now - a possible future, surface, image, object and information jostle for visibility and value.
Drawing on the work and teachings of artists such as Josef and Anni Albers, the exhibition explores how material as a medium of slow, embodied knowledge can resist both language and authority. Moving from text to textiles, the weave allows for a diagonal movement across positions; questioning what it means to act in relation to something else; as a partner, a complement or support.
Fay Nicolson (Derby, 1984) lives and works in London. She studied at Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins. Recent exhibitions and performances include: WORK WITH MATERIAL, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna (2013); OPEN CUBE, White Cube, London (2013); Bad Signs, PLAZAPLAZA, London (2012); A Small Hiccup, (with Oliver Smith) Grand Union, Birmingham and The Newbridge Project, Newcastle (2013); Quantum Leap, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh and Malmö Konsthall (2013); Lecture Performance, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2013); An Artist, Unlearning, David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2013).
A limited artist edition is available for sale to support the production of this exhibition: Untitled (APEL/PARE).
