Elizabeth Murton: Between Materials and Mechanisms

About

UH Galleries are delighted to present Elizabeth Murton’s first major solo exhibition and symposium, Between Materials and Mechanisms. Resident artist for six months, Murton has engaged with specialists, academics and participants in a series of cross- disciplinary activities. These now come together in a sophisticated and evolving installation that explores textile processes and architectural features within the gallery space, in relation to the mechanisms and materials within the human body.

The Art and Design Gallery is a distinctive space articulated through a series of white steel pillars, with a soft, plastic, inflated roof. Murton integrates her sculptural elements within its skeletal frame, introducing collections of visceral threads held in differing degrees of tension. This delicate web extends through the space, embedded in the mesh-sheets behind the gallery walls and at points reaching up to connect with the organic ceiling.

Murton studied Textiles/Visual Arts at Goldsmiths and consistently repurposes textile processes in her practice. Processes employed such as weaving, stitching, threading and beading act as a framework for ideas and subjects. In this installation, yarn takes the form of nets and bundles to interlink within the space. Functioning like muscles and connective tissue, we are invited to temporarily re-imagine the gallery as a dynamic body.

In the preceding months, Murton has extended her practice through a range of cross-disciplinary conversations and activity, challenging her relationship with materials to explore those inside and outside the body. She has engaged with university researchers from the department of physiotherapy, talked with bio-scientists and ergonomics specialists, worked with a contemporary dancer, hosted a reading group, produced creative sessions with young people and curated a symposium.

This Autumn's exhibition will bring together her active research in ambitious physical form - as tangible as our own muscles, tendons and bones. The symposium provides a platform for further dialogue between collaborators and peers. Mirroring so many of our body's mechanisms, Murton has been committed throughout the project to a dynamic, co-dependent and responsive process.