red sleeping beauty

2019, Installation of acrylic and oil paintings on paper, fabric, drawings, found objects (bottles, puppets, photographs, textbooks, lightbulbs), desks and stools, Dimensions variable

Red Sleeping Beauty was the result of my stay at the Old School Residency in Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria, during the summer of 2019. The residency took place in the former primary school of a rural community. The final installation was a direct response to the environment of the school, as it consisted of found material from within the school grounds, as well as original paintings produced during my stay there.

This combination of disparate elements poses the following questions: What is an image? What is an object? What are the limits between the two? How can a transformative narrative be suggested by their combination in a space, especially when it is an unconventional space, beyond the confines of the gallery?

The paintings themselves are abstracted landscapes which, together with the overall title and their placement, suggest narratives of abandonment in the post-communist context, and regeneration and creativity within it. The audience is invited to use its imagination to add to and be part of this narrative.

The installation is a large-scale collage. Each element exists in relation to one and other. The border between each element is an active border. An aesthetised collision.