Varieties of Disturbance

About

‘Just as a very small animal in the woods makes a disproportionate amount of noise and disturbance among the leaves and twigs on the ground when it is frightened and rushes to its hole, or even when it is not frightened but merely hunting for nuts, so that one thinks a bear is about to burst into the clearing, whereas it is only a mouse - this is what my emotion was like, so small and yet so noisy.’  [Lydia Davis The Varieties of Disturbance: Kafka Cooks Dinner]
Drawing it’s title from Lydia Davis’ collection of short stories ‘Varieties of Disturbance’- that offer acute observations on the mundane yet sublime tissue of the everyday- this duo show showcases works by two emerging female artists working in the medium of paint to create their own unnerving yet beautiful depictions of our modern lives.  From the bobbing Otters and outstretched arms of Liqing Tan to the recurring caricatures of Yulia Iosilzon that leapfrog between canvas and concept - this show offers a series of observations on the small and the vast through a brilliantly wonky technicolour mirror on the age old medium of paint.
Born in 1994, China. Liqing Tan graduated with an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, UK in 2018, and received her BA from Indiana University of Bloomington, US in 2015. Liqing has shown her works in several different counties, and is continuing create artworks describing an ‘unreality space’ or capturing a dramatic moment, in order to recall and explore human relationships among self, environment, people, universe, and imaginary world. It is about record, speculation, imagination, and recreation.
Yulia Iosilzon’s work explores an on-going cycle of emblems, social dogmas and fixations as a form of cultural expression. She brings everyday scenes to her paintings, adding grotesque irony, fairy-tales and humour. Drama is evident and abundant  in her works when  linear, abstract and mixed-media elements merge together in an on-going theatrical chaos. Her circular approach to narrative is leavened with the lightness of touch and constant repetition. And an initial readability is thrown into question by a persistent use of techniques such as screen printing, layering and collage which serve to interrupt the image and break down earlier impressions of visual plenitude.These references form part of an emblematic language-the ambivalence of which leads to the production of resonances and associations which grope towards form but do not allow for a final ‘meaning’. Iosilzon makes works on transparent fabric with silicone, and installations with plaster sculptures and ceramics.