Mustard Blanket, by Frances Disley, Flo Gordon and Laura McGlinchey

9th July – 2nd September 2018

The Suttie Arts Space

Mustard Blanket brings together three artists with a compulsion to provoke ideas with colour. The title of the exhibition is taken from the name of the commercial paint used on the gallery walls, and suggests a straightforward enveloping of the gallery in a way that enables the distinct practices of each artist to become blended. For Mustard Blanket, the artists explore colour as information, and as a carrier for expression.

Artist Information & Biographies

Frances Disley is based in Liverpool at The Royal Standard. She studied Fine Art Printmaking at The Royal College of Art, London, and is currently a Liverpool Biennial Associate Artist, and exhibiting at Baltic 39, Newcastle as part of “We are where we are”. Recent projects and exhibitions include “RRR”, live interactive performance and installation and single channel video, part of At the Library, commissioned by Sefton Libraries, Netherton Activity Centre, Liverpool 2018; “Abacus”, Bluecoat, Liverpool 2017; “SWAP Editions Edition 1 – ADHOC”, launched at Castor Projects, London 2017; “ART VAN” event part of Site Gallery’s public programme, Endcliffe Park, Sheffield 2017; performance “Charcoal Heather / Therma Sphere Max”, REC ROOM, Houston, Texas 2017; Liverpool Biennial Arriva Bus commission 2016, Liverpool Biennial Associate Artists exhibition, Liverpool 2016; “HERE”, Glasgow International, Glasgow 2016.

The works that she has made for the exhibition are a floor painting, a textiles wall hanging (curtain), and a video from both. She worked with a performer that she has previously collaborated with before to animate both objects/surfaces. The floor painting is a crude playful experiment with shape and colour painted onto a piece of adhesive vinyl which is cut out and stuck to the gallery floor. She painted onto some garments, thinking about colours to compliment the floor painting and directed Maria, her performer, to enact a series of actions on the surface. These actions are simple things like combing hair, crinkling a bag of dried fruit and playing with stones. She did the same thing with the curtain. Some of the actions are just about using the body to make satisfying shapes in relation to the ones that already exist and some of them use things associated with ASMR techniques (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) which is intended to relax the viewer. She likes the idea that you can see the floor painting and textiles work in real life and then watch the way that they can be animated and possibly imagine yourself as a viewer enacting the actions. Taking from the suggestion by GHAT that the space is sometimes used by NHSG staff to chill out a bit, and that kids go there to let off steam, she is hoping the work is both relaxing and fun.

Flo Gordon graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2013 with a 1st Class BAHons in Art and Media. Since then she has produced work in ‘The Number Shop Studios and Gallery‘, Edinburgh, which she has also helped to run. Her most notable recent exhibitions include ‘REFRACTION’, 24hourwindow for Glasgow International Festival 2018 and ‘MELON, SLICE 2’, The Number Shop Studios and Gallery for Edinburgh Art Festival 2017. Her work inherently tackles suppression with attempts to goad through her indulgent, autobiographical and self-reflective expressions.

She has made a wall mounted ‘foam mosaic’ that is a bombardment of colour and texture. It is made to have the effect of being welcoming and soft whilst also being visually challenging. It is to be a celebration of sight and has a bit of text along the bottom that will serve as a kind of cliche (one that centres around appreciating your senses/ the present). She intends for the piece to highlight the importance of cliches and how humbling an experience it can be when enlightened to their root purposes. She has also made a spontaneous/ stream of consciousness vinyl piece on the windows in the corridor, creating coloured shadows for different times of day for people to revisit. This is also a piece made to celebrate the transience of the present.

Laura McGlinchey graduated from Gray’s School of Art in 2013 with First Class BA Hons Degree in Fine Art Painting. Presenting work in RSA New Contemporaries 2014 she was awarded the Maclaine Watters Medal, RSA Art Prize and selected to exhibit at New Scottish Artists, Fleming Collection, Mayfair London. Laura co-founded Artist collective, VAU, who have set up and maintain studios in Glasgow and facilitate artist talks and events across Scotland. Returning to Gray’s Painting Department in 2015, Laura began a year long residency ending with her first Solo exhibition, ‘Walking Towards the Mountain’. Currently based in Glasgow Laura has continued to exhibit across Scotland and is preparing to begin a Masters in Painting at Glasgow School of Art.

She has a ‘Paint Rock Scanner’ inspired by the first MRI machine, NMR1, showcased in The Suttie Arts Space. The piece is an interactive experience where visitors can place a ‘Paint Rock’ on the scanner and information appears and sounds from a monitor focusing on interpretation of colours. The idea is to open up to the viewer their own unique personal experience upon each visit to the exhibition. The accompanying paintings are made in an almost archaeological manner, built up in layers, with the surfaces are scraped and scratched away to reveal deconstructing and reconstructing.

Exhibition Handout

Exhibition Floor Plan