Launch Pad: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

About

Artists: Graeme Durant, Jemma Egan, Florent Dubois, Lindsey Mendick, Suzanne Posthumus, and Josh Whitaker.

Castlefield Gallery is excited to present the next in its series of Launch Pad exhibitions, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night; a group project initiated by six artists based across the UK, France and The Netherlands. The exhibition has been  selected from CG Associate members’ submissions by artist Jo McGonigal, and Castlefield Gallery’s Programme Manager Matthew Pendergast.

The exhibition takes its title from the often-mocked and parodied line which begins English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The phrase has become associated with this melodramatic style of fiction that is also known as purple prose. It has also been used to prompt creativity in schools with an educational game where students begin with ‘It was a dark and stormy night…’ and then take it in turns to add the next line, until they have created a collective story.

Over the period of one month, the artists will be forging a ‘story’ in this manner, hoping that through the text they will create a singular subject matter which will lay the foundations for a harmonious group exhibition whilst reflecting the sometimes problematic nature of the ‘group show’. Coming together with a shared interest in making sensational and exaggerated works, the artists in It Was a Dark and Stormy Night intend to indulge their imagination, celebrating the farcical and lighthearted side of their practice.