About
Cole Contemporary is pleased to present Told, a group exhibition considering the role of the story and the storyteller in modern times. Featuring Eve Ackroyd, Melissa Jordan and Virginia Phongsathorn, the exhibition questions how the image, in our age of constant information exchange, suggests narratives to the viewer. In their works, these artists create parallel stories for isolated objects and figures; transformation and manipulation takes these images away from their original context to speak with an entirely different voice.
In Eve Ackroyd's paintings, images are sourced from news pictures of significant events, including plane crashes, protest marches and religious ceremonies. These are then transformed into sparse, abstract vistas, indeterminable from their original source, yet suggestive of dystopian societies engaged in communal or ritualistic activity. In stripping down images from news footage, Ackroyd questions the value and currency of the prevalent nature of such images.
Melissa Jordan uses film stills as source material to create cramped and unnerving sculptures. The cinematic image used in âSpread' suggests a moment within a story; the event itself becomes a distorted memory as the image is abstracted through re-sizing and reproduction, and through the form and rhythm of the sculpture. The surface of the work simultaneously suggests and obscures a sense of narrative, as we are given hints of an embrace, the intentions of which are ambiguous. This obfuscation creates an awkwardness and unease, both physical and psychological. Jordan creates anthropomorphic objects, with their puzzling semi-transparent appearance indicating a discovery. However their inability to fully reveal themselves reflects on the duplicitous nature of narratives.
Virginia Phongsathorn makes paintings for which the subject matter is in constant flux. She works in projects; exploring the relationship between a chosen subject matter and the very nature of painting. For this show, she presents an essay and a group of paintings which are rooted in research into objects and creatures which have the ability to mutate and/or replicate themselves. Drawing parallels between fragment, the development of stealth weapons, apparition, the 1980s film âGremlins', stem cell technology and repetition- the paintings speak as a body of work with varying registers of visual language and abstraction
Eve Ackroyd, Born 1984. Studied painting at Chelsea College of Art and Weissensee Academy, in Berlin. She was recently shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize 2010. Shows include Underfoot, Clerkenwell Road, London 2010, Between Shadows, Concrete and Glass London and Par-adise, Dazed & Confused Gallery, London in 2008.
Melissa Jordan Born 1984. Studied Sculpture at Chelsea College of Art and graduated from RCA, MA Sculpture in 2009. Recent shows include If You Can Hold Your Breath, Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool, 2010, Umbraculum, Clerkenwell Road, organised by Caravan Projects. She also exhibited in Set of Fields Part III curated by Field and Into the Blue Again, Bold Tendencies III, Peckham multi-story car park 2009.
Virginia Phongsathorn, Born 1984. Graduated from the RCA, MA Fine Art Painting in 2008. Recent shows include Underfoot, Clerkenwell Road, London 2010, This is the Front Room, Madame Lillies, London 2009 and Contested Ground, 176/Zabludowicz Collection, London 2009. In July 2008, she was selected to be in the Saatchi New Sensations exhibition, Truman Brewery, London.
