Fulgurance | Exhibition

The month-long exhibition opens on Friday 9th September at the ASC Gallery space in Taplow House, with a private viewing from 6 – 9pm

Curated by Martin Gayford, Fulgurance combines the work of 5 London-based artists whose heritage lies outside of England. During a time defined by uncertainty, their practice has nevertheless developed despite or as a result of it. Increased political divisions and a new divide between Britain and Europe have coincided with social restrictions, financial uncertainty and less stability. In French, the term Fulgurance evokes speed, brightness and brevity, while the English translation suggests an aesthetic brilliance.

For some, social restrictions prompted forms of escapism – into the natural world, the desire to work or exhibit overseas, simply making use of longer hours in the studio and on occasions, developing new ways of working. Marq Kearey’s small sketchbook collages are made with fragments of paintings produced on paper, a resourcefulness employed following the literal destruction of his studio space in 2020. The leftover resources of discarded cut-outs prompted a new process of reusing and reconfiguring materials to make work dealing simultaneously with loss and hope. The increased fly-tipping on deserted streets during lockdown allowed Andrea V Wright to purloin discarded furniture and material off-cuts for work that teeters on the peripheries of sculpture and painting. Some of the redundant objects collected included re-constructed chairs designed by Eric Lyons (who worked with Bauhaus) which became ‘limbs’ in a state of limbo in Wright’s Third Wave. When reassembled, this limb-like physicality becomes reactivated, resting on an accreted imprint in latex of a wall in a disused factory building. 

Alice Wilson’s practice shifts through many different scales and modes of working, the constants tending to be the use of construction timber, wood and photographs. Made In Italy (maquette) and Not Made Yet (maquette) play with a duality of potential, one having been realised at a height of 5 metres towering into the gallery at domobaal and the other sitting patiently in her studio waiting to see what it might become, the addition of feet (although fairly dysfunctional) adding to it’s suggestion of journey. The almost deserted buildings depicted in Martin Gayford’s drawing More Gossipers could be seen as skyscrapers or small toys, while his paintings increase this sense of scale to suggest parts of scaffolding and machinery, devoid of any obvious human presence. In Deposit Conversion and Top Branch Kinetics, Karolina Albricht explores painting as an opening, stretching beyond dimensionality and optical perception. Its process is driven by curiosity, a desire to see what is possible, and what can be uncovered. Her work probes the reciprocity of colour, shape, line and texture, and their responsiveness to the painting’s edges, concerns that are also present in her charcoal drawing Untitled.

Fulgurance will open with a private view on Friday 9th September, 6 – 9pm. The exhibition continues Friday 9th September – 14th October 2022, Monday to Friday, 10am – 5pm. No appointment necessary.

ASC Gallery
Taplow House
The Chaplin Centre
Thurlow St
London SE17 2DG