GLITCH
Glitch is a temporary malfunction, a spike or a change in flow.
A time to pause and reset, recalibrate, reform.
Could it be divine intervention or simply an overloaded circuit?
Where are we in the mechanics of our lives?
This show explores the theme of ‘Glitch’ through the work of 14 emerging and established artists: Alyson Minkley, Anwyl Cooper-Willis, Chris Mitchard, Debbie Lee, Francis Willoughby, Genevieve Sioka, James Lawton, Jay Ryan, Leonie Bradley, Lisa Lindqvist, Lucy Ward, Neil Milton, Paul Raymond and Susan Ridge.
The exhibition investigates algorithms, cyber culture, personal identity, distorted truths, evolution, the myth of perfection and human connection through multi-disciplinary approaches: video, animation, sound, poetry, sculpture, photography, printmaking, drawing, digital art, painting and installation.
Curated by Lisa Lindqvist
“I am a practising Sculptor and a graduate from Wimbledon Art School and the Frink School of Sculpture. I have worked as a propmaker and scenic artist for TV, film and theatre before concentrating on my own artistic practice. My figurative sculptures have been exhibited widely and can be found in private/ public collections worldwide.
In 2013 i created an alias 'Katarina Rose' and worked on public artworks for b-side Festival (with Arts Council funding) and two of my own curated shows. I also created story-box diorama works for the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities -London which are on permanent display there. My most notable exhibited work was for the RWA show 'Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter.
In 2021 I began to combine the two disparate artistic practices of Katarina Rose and Lisa Lindqvist and i am currently creating work that is a fusion of the two.
I have also been an International snow sculptor for 25 years and competed in snow carving events worldwide. I have created three rooms at The Icehotel, Lapland and recently been employed as a snow sculpting expert for the TV show 'The Greatest Snowman'“
Headshot of Lisa Lindqvist
Contributing artists
Alyson Minkley
Bath-Spa MA Fine-Art graduate 2021 and current Emerge graduate studios resident, Alyson-Minkley originally trained in Sculpture at Kingston in-the-late-80s. After an early career in environment & community arts, Minkley went on to teach Art-&-Design in secondary-&-further-education and holds a part-time post lecturing at Strode College.
As an artist, her work holds tension between traditional solid-state materials & transience in contemporary digital media. Themes include paradox of didactic systems in an age-of-information, political-&-social manipulation through media-&-education, challenging social-constructs & cataloguing embodied social anthropology. As antithesis to working in secondary education & with an inescapable lens of dyspraxia, Minkley advocates curiosity, play & interaction, testing ideas, questioning boundaries & connecting cross-discipline; this is evident both as outcome-&-process. Art as a vehicle to engender dialogue is recurrent throughout all projects.
Recent exhibitions/showings include Mall & Espacio galleries in London, Engine-Room film festival, Salisbury, Centre-of-Gravity & RWA Bristol, solo shows at The-Art-Cohort in Bath and St-Mary’s-School, Wiltshire. Minkley won the 2021 Bath-Open-Arts-prize, the 2019 Porthleven-Prize and was shortlisted for the 2020 Visions-of-Science Art Prize.
Anwyl Cooper- Willis
Born in Wales, and lived in England, America and Canada, based in Bristol for the last several years. A scientific background informs thinking, questioning, and analysing. Work in diverse media including drawing, print and making things in three dimensions.
Interests include being and embodiment, human society, power balances and the negotiations that all this entails.
Chris Mitchard
I returned to making art after putting it on hold to raise a family and do normal job stuff for many years...although I've always maintained a love of photography and have had many photos published and kept my hand with art by designing posters and album covers for bands.
I studied photography and graphics at college into my early career but went into my family business where these things became more of a hobby.
I have had a renewed love of making artworks over the last few years and started making old school cut and paste works then editing these digitally.. I've submitted a few of these to exhibitions where they have been picked up and put on display.
Along with art I have also been involved with music over the last 20 years both as a performer and as a promoter.
I have a love of old school techniques whether that be film photography or cutting collages or the crackle of vinyl..I love the hands on approach.
I am a West Country lad born in Somerset and still living at the foot of the Mendip Hills.
Check out my artwork through my Instagram page gogoprints.
Debbie Lee
I graduated with a first class degree in Painting from the Glasgow School of Art in 1989 and subsequently went on to study at the Royal College of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago as well as being a Commonwealth Research Scholar at Delhi College of Art.
The main focus of my work is drawing, painting, printmaking and animation on themes including storytelling and childhood. I worked as an art therapist 1998-2006. I am now self-employed as an artist/mother.
Storytelling, which is intrinsic to my work, is a way of making sense of the world that is passed through generations. The story may be told to instruct, heal or to entertain and mystify the audience. But mostly the story stimulates imagination. I am a visual artist and I make sense of the world through images. I use artist’s books as a way of presenting a series of connected images. I use experimental animation to make my images move, and painting to express larger narratives. I use printmaking to create new images and colour combinations. My ideas are often developed by moving between different media.
Instagram: @debbie.lee88
Frances Willoughby
Frances Willoughby is a British multidisciplinary artist based in Bristol who has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including the Mall Galleries and the Royal West of England Academy. In 2019 she completed an artist residency at the Helmut Gallery in Leipzig, Germany.
Willoughby’s practice includes sculpture, installation, and collage, subverting the traditional and manipulating reality. Her work is figurative and aims to distort our preconceptions of the familiar through the manipulation of nostalgic objects and traditional feminine craft. Sewing and textiles play a large part in the creation of mixed media soft-sculptures. Within this series, she has adapted toy patterns to create life-sized female bodies which draw on her fascination with dolls. These self-contained forms are autobiographical and stem from relationships, anxiety, and conflict. A key piece from this body of work is ‘Escaping the Pull’ (2020) a soft-sculpture she created in response to her struggle with catastrophic thinking due to a sense of isolation during the pandemic. With each piece of work, she provokes a narrative using a series of symbols that are often nostalgic objects, inviting the viewer to reflect on their own history. The work acknowledges the greyness and fog of emotions, using conflicting materials of textiles, wire and pins to convey the uncertainty and instabilities of life.
A fogginess re-emerges within her collage work where found photographs inspire curiosity and provoke unanswerable questions. These strangers represent faded memories, an anonymous snapshot into another reality. After spending several years carefully cataloguing her own family photographs, she became more interested in collecting those she had no link to. Undefined and malleable their past unknown, they enable new narratives to be woven. These images have become an inexplicit memorial, conveying a sense of fragmentation and loss.
Genevieve Sioka
Genevieve's work is predominantly within the discipline of painting and printmaking.
Genevieve studied BA Textile Design at Winchester School of Art and MA Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, UK.
Genevieve was Junior Fellow for Visual Culture and interned at the Centre for Fine Print Research.
During her Masters, Genevieve researched and developed a patented hybrid Printmaking technique using Laser Machinery in conjunction with Textile printing at the Centre for Fine Print Research.
Genevieve has lectured in Fashion, Textiles and Printmaking and her passion is colour, texture and composition.
"I grew up in a small rural village in Wiltshire, England, travelled with family, worked in art galleries, studied and lectured Art and Design, married a Greek and returned to said small village with a young family of my own.
My family home was filled with African textiles and artefacts as my parents had spent many year working in the Central African Republic. I believe these shapes, colours and prints are where my inspiration is rooted.
My more recent practice centres around layering; not surprisingly when you consider my background in printmaking. I consider each piece an insight into the complexities of life and how as a whole, we function, we progress and through the mess there is sense and beauty and a lot to be learnt. I study my paintings for opportunities to improve upon them and only when there are none, the piece is finished. This is the philosophy I embody in life. Knowing when I am done and needn't scramble for more, better, abundance, is self care at its best."
James Lawton
James Lawton works with machine learning to create unique images and texts that illustrate how we create our digital selves, how others are able to use our data to create a form of us, as well as the veracity and distortion of those creations. He uses datasets that he has created, including self-portraits, journals, fiction, recordings, and other methods. These works address issues of identity, consciousness, self, and perception. A self-portrait method is often used to provide unrestricted, accessible, and emotionally vulnerable data based on a real person. With himself as the primary subject, he then uses that definitive data to create machine learning models whose output portrays a broad and equivocal interpretation of a person, which in turn calls into question how we create and are created by interpretations of data.
Jay Ryan
I’m a UK based artist and my artistic style is based in illustration and street art. I create digital art, and paintings on canvas and skateboard decks using acrylic and spray paint.
My interest in comic and illustration art dates back to my childhood growing up in the 1980’s where I would watch Saturday morning cartoons. I loved the action and adventure but I was also fascinated by the amazing artwork that was displayed.
As I moved into my teens I researched as many aspects of illustration and comic book style artwork I could find.
As an adult I moved into working in education. I would work with young people who had behavioural and emotional issues that struggled in mainstream education. I found that using comic book art drawing lessons really helped the young people I worked with to open and engage with learning. It was here that I discovered a keen interest in street art. I found that a lot of the street art involved comic book style art and some of the well known characters. I began experimenting with spray paint art on canvases in my spare time.
When COVID happened I had a lot more time at home and made the decision to actually begin to sell my artwork. I began by selling canvas paintings, and then moved into creating art on skateboard decks and then moved into digital artwork. I then began to undertake commissions for clients in various parts of the world and have created all sorts of designs, including logos for various businesses, and even shirt designs for a junior baseball team. My artwork has been featured in several magazines and exhibited in galleries in the UK. And in 2021 I was one of the award winning artists at the Nottingham street art festival. And will be one of the artists at this year’s Upfest festival.
Facebook: Boo21CustomArtwork
Instagram: @boo21custom
Leonie Bradley
Leonie Bradley explores themes of memory and loss, in particular how identity is changing in the post-digital age, often by combining the traditional, analogue medium of wood engraving with digital print media.
Lisa Lindqvist
Lisa Lindqvist is a sculptor and visual artist working in clay, plaster, cement, ink, 3-D collage, metal, resin, snow, ice and sand. Her ideas are often linked through the diverse materials and practices that she employs.
Lisa creates large scale works Internationally in snow and sand and has designed and constructed three rooms for the Icehotel in Sweden. She has exhibited widely and created three solo retrospective shows.
She has a degree in Fine Art Sculpture from Wimbledon School of Art and completed a two year post graduate study in figurative sculpture at the Frink School of Sculpture. She spent several years working as a propmaker and scenic painter for television, film and theatre before setting up her own practice. She created and worked under the alias Katarina Rose for 6 years and a selection of this work is permanently housed in the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities – London.
‘My work is inspired by myth, nature, poetry, spirituality, dreams, imaginary landscapes and human/ animal behaviour.’
Lucy Ward
Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader
Drawing and Print
Instagram: @uwedrawingprint
Member of the UWE Drawing Research group
www.uwedrawingresearch.com
Instagram: @uwe_drawing_research
Instagram: @drawlucyward
Neil Milton
I am a writer, DJ and audio-visual artist. I studied a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing at UEA, Norwich, and completed an MA in Sound Art at LCC, The University of Arts London. I am also a qualified FE lecturer.
I have self published 3 pamphlets of poetry, 3 collections of short stories, a YA novella, and written a memoir. As a sound artist, I have released an album of audio poetry, a dance music album and an EP. I have also produced a hip hop single and EP for a disabled artist, and recorded 16 mixes as a DJ. I made an audio-visual installation with a sign language poet for my MA, various experimental short videos and a video poem, as well as various other short sound works, including sound production for an animation. I am an accomplished fine artist and digital designer.
I have exhibited at various galleries, including Fringe Arts Bath: Co.lab, OutsideIn: East, the E17 Art Trail, Think Arts, The Brentwood Art Trail and The Chelmsford Festival, amongst others. I have performed live with David Toop.
Paul Raymond
Paul Raymond is an artist & arts educator from the north east of England. Paul is also a studio member of the Newbridge Project in Newcastle.
Paul’s work incorporates a variety of techniques and materials including drawing, collage, digital moving image, performance and kinetic sculpture. He is interested in experimental and playful approaches to making and enjoys working with others through collaborative projects and workshops.
Susan Ridge
Sue Ridge is an artist, and Visiting Lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts.
Her current photographic work has been based on X-Ray commissions in a number of London hospitals.
Her artwork often arises from processes which engage with the social context of the site.
Current work includes – X-Ray Archive working with University of the Arts six Archives and Special collections, funded by UAL Enquiry and Innovation Research.
She is a member of the collaborative group - Embroidered Minds exploring epilepsy and the William Morris Family exhibiting at UCLH Neurological Hospital Library, Queen Square London and the Chelsea Flower Show 2018. The project comments on William Morris and the stigma of Epilepsy and the conspiracy of silence around his daughter Jenny who suffered from epilepsy. William Morris lived and worked next to the Neurological Hospital in Queen Square.
Her commissioned work in healthcare and archives feeds her studio practice.
In 2014 she worked with Guy's & St Thomas' Charity working with their three affiliated Museums -Florence Nightingale Museum, Old Operating Theatre Museum and the Gordon Museum from the Gordon Museum.
In 2013 a series of her X-Ray works based on the artefacts derived from the refurbishment of the Jacobean manor house at Forty Hall, Enfield which were shown in an exhibition entitled Forty X Rays.
Recent Awards -
TIFA - Tokyo International Photo Awards 2021 – two bronze Awards and an honourable mention.
Fine Art Photography Awards 2022- Abstract professional category.
Recent exhibitions-
• The Lido Open, Margate 2021
• Hastings Open Exhibition, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. 2020
• Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2020
• Women & Photography Exhibition Oxford,2020
• Interruptions’ Alternative processes group show – Photofusion Gallery, London.
• X-Ray Archive - Central Saint Martins Archives Windows Gallery 2018,
• New Vision in Printmaking, Chelsea College of Arts, and Kuadu Museum of Fine Art, Taipei Taiwan 2018
• International Print Biennale, Bolton, North East England 2016
• Neo Print Prize Exhibition, Bolton. Printmaking Today Magazine Award 2016.
• London Group Open Exhibition 2015 Photography Prize winner
