CREATIVE COUPLING
Do creative couples work individually or collaboratively? Does individual thought & imagination flow freely, inspiring creative impulses for each other?
Join Amat-Binti, Esmond-Joanne and Kimberley-Silas on a collaborative project as they work through individual & couple creativity, stemming from a committed relationship being put through the inevitable day-to-day cycles of emotional ups & downs, as well as waves of highs and mundanity through time.
Amor Mati 2
2023
Crepe cotton fabric, dyed faux feathers, watercolour, poster paint, coloured
pen and pencil, printed photograph collage on acid-free paper
59.4 x 84.1 cm
We look in the same direction and still see differing views. We are we, I am me, you are you. It moves because we do. Two heads on one body - blanketed in the background of certain uncertainties, moving in unity as one entity.
Two heads on one body - they can scream, they can laugh, they can kiss, they can sing, they can sulk, they can talk, talk, talk.
Eodh of Becoming
2024
Sand, plaster, pigment, polyurethane, papier-mache-clay, gouache
82cm x 30cm x 30cm
Joanne,
I made ‘Eodhs’. And then went on to define it as ‘something that stands and upholds things that are dearest, with gentleness’.
In the stillness that so rarely permits me nowadays, I look out for objects amongst the landscapes. Against the pure white horizon between infinite skies and seas, I imagine them as glints of dark light. These objects I bring back into the chaos, wishing on them to grant stillness more and more. Such trials I undertake alone.
For our first time working together, I sought to find space within my own small earth for you to grow something in. So I built, in the only ways I know, objects that could stand and hold your art of us. I built because I see art in labour and I see love in labour. All of those I see with clarity in a relationship of two creatives.
So I built stubbornly, and balanced, these black stones. They are first of the Eodhs and with them I bring your art from our chaos into my stillness. When I see them there again, I will smile, and see them gazing back at me with gentleness.
Esmond
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Esmond,
What can I possibly say about this project that we have been working on? Every metaphor is too cliché. Sentimentally shallow. An attempt to liken this to something else removes all depth and exposes us to judgment. What I can say, in the truest sense of the words, is that this just is.
My contribution to our first time working together can be seen thus. I traipsed down our years of knowing each other; sifted through our gradual transformations (both as individuals, then as the individuals we both know); examined moments when we collided like ink in water. I then trotted back out with fragments that I can show to the world. It is imperfect, incomplete–it both says exactly what I want but nothing of what I feel.
Yet when these fragments rest, cling, stand tall on Eodhs of your creation, I am able to look at them not just as an artist but also a viewer. And what I see is not you or me, or you-and-me, but the third being-ness when we are together, something that is alive, existing, just is.
I look forward to many more opportunities to work with you. Thank you for the experience.
Joanne.
the roads we’ve taken, the miles we’ve earned
2023
Mixed media on canvas 50cm x 50cm
Sometimes I get carried away.
Sometimes I crash.
Sometimes we need a reminder,
On how to love and care for one another.
Too assured were we of our love that we forgot to count the miles, or observe the blinking engine lights in our dashboard.
Time seen through the lens of a machine.
Oh how the years haven’t been kind to us my dear. But how beautiful they are.
📆 Exhibition: 30 March - 21 April
🕒 Opening Hours & Days:
Friday: 12pm - 5pm
Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 5pm
(no booking needed - no entrance fee)