Lost Certainty

Contemporary Applied Arts London
Claire Curneen and Alice Kettle
06/05/11 - 11/06/11
Whilst we are distinctly ourselves in this exhibition at CAA there are nevertheless reflections and musings between each of the individual pieces. Since both artist’s work is figurative in theme, there is something of a conversation between works both as single subjects and within the collective group.

There is a sense of separate identity and dialogue, of sideways glances and interior
conversations. Claire’s Angel catches sight of his image within Alice’s work, maybe
his shadow, an implied other, a sense of fallen self which is abandoned as he embarks on a journey. We do not know the nature of the journey, it may be an exit from Paradise, since in all these works there is a suggested longing for an imagined place, of searching, hopeful melancholy, of certainty lost, and of the traverse between the real and the unreal.

Claire’s work inhabits the physical, the tangible real space. Alice‘s wall hung pieces serve to define the context, both as backdrops and an extension of a landscape. They can be seen as space beyond, the experienced past and the impending future. The connection between each maker’s work forms a narrative of the singular, the sense of place, of imminent potential and separate searching of the soul.

There are shared symbols in trees and flowers, as metaphors for universality and of exchanged material in textile and ceramic. In the juxtaposition of makers and of work the common narrative extends and reflects back on each individual maker and each distinct piece. It has been an exciting coming together and of conversations in joint and separate intention.

Alice Kettle