déjà vu (clip) from Stuart Mitchell on Vimeo.

The shining guest (clip) from Stuart Mitchell on Vimeo.

The framed animations are an extension of the artists’ collaboration as part of Joy Experiment and were produced in response to the opportunity to exhibit in the video space at View Art Gallery in Bristol for the ‘In Darkness Blooms’ show, December – January.

‘Déjà vu’

Ideas of duality, starting with an inanimate rocking horse in a domestic setting which is then replaced by a skeletal horse which comes to life and enters a dream like landscape where he is freed from his restriction as a playroom rocking horse, his heart beats until the fire returns burning for a while before finally extinguishing as the whole sequence loops again.

‘The shining guest’

Beth Carter’s original charcoal drawing ‘The Conjurors Horse’ is animated in this work. The tethered horse at the centre of the drawing pulls and bucks in an attempt to escape until he is calmed by the appearance of a small girl on his back. The girl turns like a jewellery box ballerina. The girl’s head is transformed into various other symbolic heads referencing magic shows and circuses, a white rabbit’s head, red and white roses, a white horse’s head and finally into a artichoke head which is both a symbol of peace and fertility.

In February, the Brook Gallery launches a year of ‘Woman in Art’, bringing together some of the UK’s most talented living female artists in a series of solo exhibitions.

First in line is Joy Experiment print artist Emma Molony who pushes the boundaries of fine and applied art. Emma will show some beautiful original prints on magical fairytale themes as well as some of her extraordinary silkscreen wallpaper designs that grace homes across the world.

The Brook Gallery’s ‘Woman in art’ season continues with a celebration of the recent appointment of Eileen Cooper as the Keeper of the RA – the first female in its 240 year history with an exhibition of her work.

Mila Furstova, winner of the Brook Gallery prize at last year’s ‘Bite’ exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London completes the line up with her exquisite and often poetic etchings.

For more information, visit www.brookgallery.co.uk

Thought we’d share this stunning early image of Joy Experiment’s Ione Rucquoi‘s new body of work. It’s still a work in progress, we’ll keep you updated of all developments here. For more information on Ione’s other work, visit www.ionerucquoi.com.

LEADING THE GIANT

A selection of beguiling drawings and mythological sculptures from the figurative sculptor Beth Carter.

Inhabiting a rich allegorical world where myth, legend and story telling form the bedrock of all else, this show will exhibit Beth Carter’s first coloured drawings alongside a minotaur of epic proportions (192cm tall to be exact). Fresh from her first foray outside the UK in New York, Carter has produced new works for this long awaited UK masterclass in bronze.

The minotaur as ever plays a central role as the destabilisation of classical mythology pervades her less predatory take on this legendary creature ”I work within the realm of a sculptural tradition where the symbolic use of animal imagery has been a continuously potent source, I seek a new level of inquiry into these timeless themes, and in this sense my work is flavoured by a mythological and classical aesthetic.”

Carter’s figurative sculpture embodies a mixture of zoomorphic and human form, juxtaposing basic animal instincts with that of human everydayness. Meanwhile, her drawings reinforce a nocturnal motif as if the maudlin women, the strange animal-men and their consuming eyes are beckoning us into the shadows of our dreams…and we aren’t always sure we want to follow.

Anyone who shares Beth Carter’s fascination with the human condition must surely embrace the invitation to be found in her body of work. For here, among the richly detailed drawings and careful sculptures, we discover an unfolding meditation on those existential dilemmas that beset us all, and a world of its own in the making.

Leading the Giant

17 October – 10 November 2011

Private View: Saturday 15 October, 6 – 8pm (RSVP)

 bo.lee gallery

For further information or images please email jemma@bo-lee.co.uk

or call 07970 492858 / 01225 428211