Experiment | Control
Alex Gough, Sara Naim, Katie Pratt, Guy Marshall-Brown
Blyth gallery, Imperial College, London, 21 November 2018 - 5 january 2019
Experiment | Control explored the overlap between art and science and took place at Blyth Gallery; an art space within a scientific institution. The space between deliberate gesture and chance reaction in artistic practice was examined in this group exhibition. Work by Alex Gough, Guy Marshall-Brown, Sara Naim and Katie Pratt was featured, including new pieces responding to the exhibition’s theme. All four artists set up specific parameters which they then test and transgress. Their practices create dichotomies between what is in and what is beyond the artist’s control, and what is between and beyond the parameters that the artist establishes for her/himself.
Experiment | Control invited the viewer to consider their position within the work, and how they choose to navigate the terrains and topographies of the works as semi- choreographed by the artists, through both deliberate gesture and chance reaction.
Alex Gough is a painter who makes his own paint from acrylic binder and gesso and uses domestic items to manipulate the paint and control its reactions across the surface. His Wilderness in Paint series 'explores an expressive and instinctive method of painting which pays attention to paint and surface on both a macro and a microscopic level.’
Guy Marshall-Brown is a ceramicist working in response to his materials, unlimited by the typical associations between ceramics and utility. In his Collapse Series, the kiln is the tool of his experimentation, causing ‘semi-predictable alchemical states of flux.’ The work exists between the painterly and the sculptural in its exploration of how processes can have their own effect on a work.
Sara Naim works in the intersection between photography and sculpture. Her Reaction series is produced by taking expired polaroid films and exposing them to light. She then dissects the results to create high-resolution scans, resulting in a magnification of a chemical reaction. The work blurs the boundaries between the sculptural and the photographic, making the viewer question the juncture between the two mediums.
Katie Pratt creates abstract oil paintings that ‘progress from a chaotic beginning towards a meticulous, systemic order.’ Her practice begins with an initial gesture, paint thrown at canvas, and the work is then resolved through the implication of scrupulous rules devised by the artist.
Experiment | Control was accompanied by an events programme including a panel discussion chaired by Tess Charnley, between the artists and Dr. Matthew Genge, Senior Lecturer in Earth and Planetary Science at Imperial College, on the 27th November 2018, and a workshop chaired by Alex Gough on the 28th November 2018. To raise funds for the exhibition, each artist has produced a limited edition of ten digital archive prints which can be purchased either individually or as a set of four.
Blyth Gallery, curated by Mindy Lee, is an artist-run space for the creative exploration of ambitious visual projects. Located within Imperial College London, the gallery hosts a range of group and solo shows throughout the year.