Nicky Hirst: Elemental Works

About

This exhibition will present Hirst's archive of found and paired pages, an ongoing chronological project since 2012. A pair of framing options will also be presented for these works by Dylan Shipton Frames.

"There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope."

Mark Twain (c.1900–1907)

"Perhaps, what one wants to say is formed in childhood, and the rest of one’s life is spent trying to say it."

Barbara Hepworth (c.1971)

"Somewhere within the terrain of these coupled quotes is where these works inhabit. Elementals are visually paired images. They started life elsewhere, from another source. They are second hand, borrowed from magazines and books. The found images are my medium and once removed from their original context they become forms and colours to work with. Each image becomes an element that has the potential to be paired with another element. I feel the shapes of the diptych rather than think them. The limitless photographic pairings create new unspoken narratives, each with its own internal logic such as similarity, difference, scale, poetry, chance and humour."

Nicky Hirst (2018)

And on Saturday 12 May at 4pm, Special Guest Bernard Walsh will perform 'What do you do?' within Nicky Hirst's exhibition:

"What do you do?
What do you do when asked to answer that same question? I, I hesitate, where to come in, come from, come at the question – I either care too much or I hardly care at all."

Bernard Walsh (2018)