General Store

About

Currently, Ph.D student in Contemporary Art, Barrett is testing out the capacity of salt-dough to construct complex sculptures innovating techniques and discovering the qualities of the material. In doing so, she seeks to dissolve the boundaries between the art world and its audience and demonstrate that democratic materials - which can be put to work by anyone regardless of skill or training - have their place in artistic practice.

Flora Bradwell, who is due to start an MFA in Painting at Slade in September, has many strings to her artistic bow. Driven by a desire to playfully rub the fantastical up against the everyday, Bradwell explores a fictional realm through painting, installation, video, animation and performance. She librates the concept of painting by using many different surfaces in her practice, it's not just the flat canvas that she explores, but also items of clothing, moving image, the dinner table and even a mask that she wears as fictional, bulbous character Bella Lordwarf who is an extension of her painting.

As well as installing previously constructed sculptures for this project with HEWING WITTARE, Barrett and Bradwell will engage in a week-long period of making in the space opening to the public halfway through the week. Both artists will be populating the GENERAL STORE, a nod to Claes Oldenburg's project ‘The Store’, with newly made objects, activating the exhibition as a site for ongoing construction. Visitors are invited to sustain this activity by performing the role of the consumer, both observing and experiencing it first-hand, sometimes participating in the exercise and purchasing the available goods.