Vague Poetics installed at Matt’s Gallery in 2023.
Vague Poetics, a film commissioned by Matt’s Gallery, London in 2023 will be shown at MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, as part of the exhibition Booked 2024, from 11 – 26 May.
The film is made up entirely of text taken from the first 40 Matt’s Gallery whitebooks that were published to accompany exhibitions produced at the gallery from 1983 to 2019.
The Eaten Heart, 2013
The 2013 work The Eaten Heart, an altered book based on the Penguin Great Loves version Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Eaten Heart: Unlikely Tales of Love has been reviewed by Robert Bolick on the Books on Books website. The review can be read here.
Several drawings created as part of a residency with North Yorkshire County Records Office and Chrysalis Arts will be shown in Collecting Nature a group exhibition at Eagle Gallery, London from 16 November 2023.
‘Collecting Nature draws on the work of six artists who explore a rich tradition that spans Medieval bestiaries, botanicals and herbariums to the collections of 18th and 19th century self-taught amateur naturalists. The exhibition encompasses many mediums including artist’s books, botanical drawings, etchings, photographs, entomology boxes, cutting-edge silk screens and stone-printed lithographs. The artists focus on nature to comment upon history, the passage of time, the fragility of our eco-system.’
The exhibition includes works by Mandy Bonnell, Tracey Bush, Marisa Culatto, Jane Joseph, Serena Smith and Carolyn Thompson and continues until 22 December 2023.
Silenced (still from performance), 2021
The altered book Silenced will be shown at Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur, in the exhibition The Book As Art from 7 September – 30 October 2023.
Silenced came about as the result of a performance with the same name commissioned by Nasty Women Connecticut and Yale Center for Sacred Music in early 2021.
The film Vague Poetics, which was commissioned by Matt’s Gallery earlier this year, will be shown in MattFlix 36-47 at Matt’s Gallery, London from 1–3 September 2023. The weekend programme celebrates the culmination of a year-long series of commissions and screenings at Matt’s Gallery supported by Art Fund.
Vague Poetics will be shown alongside work by artists Ann Bean, Angus Braithwaite, Nina Davis, Benedict Drew, Lucy Gunning, Lawrence Lek, Zein Majali, Hardeep Pandhal, Paul Tarragó, Alison Turnbull and Joseph Walsh.
Vague Poetics, a new body of work comprising a video work and whitebook publication of the same name can be seen at Matt’s Gallery, London in the Outset Archive from 15 March to 16 April 2023.
The project is created from and in response to text found in the first 40 Matt’s Gallery whitebooks that were published to accompany exhibitions at the gallery from 1983 to 2019.
Vague Poetics, film still, 2023
Vague Poetics, a new film commissioned by Matt’s Gallery, London will be shown on MattFlix from 3 March – 5 May 2023. The film’s narrative is created from text found within the first 40 Matt’s Gallery booklets published to accompany exhibitions produced at Matt’s Gallery from 1983-2019.
A physical exhibition including the film and a publication of the same name, can be seen at Matt’s Gallery in the archive space from 15 Mar to 16 Apr 2023.
Re-readings at Eagle Gallery, London 9 Feb–17 March 2023
New drawings based on Nabokov’s The Aurelian can be seen in Re-readings, an exhibition at Eagle Gallery, London from 9 February – 17 March 2023, alongside a selection of my page-specific prints.
The exhibition also includes prints, bookworks and sculpture by Jonathan Callan and Hormazd Narielwalla.
The Beast in Me at Middlesbrough Art Weekender, 2023
I’m very pleased to have work included in this year’s Middlesbrough Art Weekender. The Beast in Me will be on show as part of the North East Open at Zetland Buildings, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough from 22-25 September.
For further information and a full festival programme please visit the Middlesbrough Art Weekender website.
Unfolding Origins at Selby Abbey
The Last Walk Home continues its tour of North Yorkshire as part of the Unfolding Origins exhibition at Selby Abbey.
The culmination of a residency with Chrysalis Arts Development and North Yorkshire County Record Office during 2020-21, the work comprises a series of drawings and sound works based on research into the World War I Appeals Papers held at the Record Office.
The work will be on show alongside that of Lynn Setterington, and Nick Jordan & Jacob Cartwright from 28 September to 30 October 2022.
This, of course, is all speculation, film still, 2022
This, of course, is all speculation, a 20 minute film exploring the lives of Thomas Wood, a 19th century gilder, framer and gallerist from Darlington and his son Sydney H. Wood, a photographer, is now accessible via QR code at the Head of Steam Darlington Railway Museum, and Darlington Library’s Centre for Local Studies until December 2022.
This, of course, is all speculation was created with the help of a Dover Prize 2021 Creative Award from County Durham Community Foundation and Creative Darlington. Please check with venues for opening times.
The film can also be viewed online here.
What a Wilderness it has been! 2021, Print available from the Laurence Sterne Trust
A new print created for Laurence Sterne Trust at Shandy Hall is now available.
What a wildernesses it has been!
2021, 50cm x 50cm
Archival Glicee print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, Edition 10
For further information, or to purchase the print, please contact Shandy Hall directly on 01347 868465 or email info@laurencesternetrust.co.uk
What a wilderness it has been! is a survey of all the flowers in the Quarry at Shandy Hall during June and July 2021. Referencing vintage botanical drawings found on the internet, line drawings of each of the flowers recorded have been created and layered on top of one another to create a garland, through which each flower can be seen in full. Coloured dots depicting the hues of the flowers adorn the petals.
Installing The Last Walk Home at Pickering Library
The Last Walk Home is the culmination of Carolyn Thompson's residency with Chrysalis Arts Development and North Yorkshire County Records Office as part of the Unfolding Origins project. The exhibition comprises a series of drawings and sound works based on research into the World War I Appeals Papers held at the Records Office.
Thompson performed six walks through Ryedale during Autumn 2020 and Spring 2021 to mark the anniversaries of the deaths of men from the area who fought and died during World War I. Each of these men had appealed against conscription, due to being exempt on the basis they made their living from the land, but were subsequently sent to war and did not return. The walks took the routes that would have led each man home from the nearest train station to their last place of residence. The drawings and sound works have been created from recordings collected during these walks.
Unfolding Origins is a collaboration between Chrysalis Arts Development and North Yorkshire County Records Office (NYCRO). It is funded by Ryedale, Selby and Richmondshire District Councils, ArtUK and Arts Council England.
Holy, Holy, Holy at No Show Space, London, presents a library of 20th and 21st century books with holes –some intentional, some not; some playful and productive; some destructive and obscuring. Curated by Inscription: The Journal of Material Text with Fraser Muggeridge & Aslak Gurholt, the exhibition celebrates the launch of Inscription issue 2, with a special preview of the journal.
On display will be a richly varied and international collection of titles, including Katsumi Komagata's What Color? (1991); Peter Newell's The HOLE Book (1908); Scott Blake's Hole Punch Flipbook #1 (2020); Lucio Fontana's perforated covers; Dieter Roth's iconic die-cut volumes and Kendell Gerrs' Point Blank (2004), an edition of 1030 blank books with each copy shot at point blank range. In addition, the exhibition will present artworks by Carolyn Thompson and David Bellingham.
Food Lovers: Custard, 2020
Imprints: Art Editing Modernism explores the impact and meaning of modernist literary works in the present day. The exhibition asks ‘What does it mean to edit a modernist text?’ and examines the creative potential packed into that practice through a series of newly commissioned artworks. The exhibition is part of the Imprints of the New Modernist Editing project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by Professor Bryony Randall, University of Glasgow; Jane Hyslop, Edinburgh College of Art; and Edwin Pickstone, Glasgow School of Art.
Thompson’s work Food Lovers based on excerpts from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons was commissioned for the exhibition, which runs from 29 August to 11 September 2021 at Shandy Hall, York, the former home of proto-modernist Laurence Sterne, author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
Avant Kinema / Barbara Balfour / Eloise Birtwhistle & Ane Lopez / Brass Art / Becky Brewis / Anna Chapman Parker / Joey Chin / Maria Fusco / Chris Kohler / Scott Myles & Edwin Pickstone / Gill Partington / Steve Rigley / Carolyn Thompson / Ane Thon Knutsen / Sam Winston
Carolyn Thompson has been awarded one of five Creative Awards from County Durham Community Foundation and Creative Darlington to ‘progress or implement work’ based on her artistic heritage in Darlington including research into the lives of Thomas and Sydney Wood.
The Beast in Me, 2021
The Beast in Me, has been remade especially for Inscription: the Journal of Material Text – Theory, Practice, History. The work will be included as a special print with Issue no. 2 of the Journal (published October 2021), which will also feature art from Fiona Banner, Erica Baum, Christian Bok, Dianna Frid, Kendell Geers, Carla Nappi and Harold Offeh.
Silenced, a 14-day durational performance work, will be shown in the online project Silent Fire created by Nasty Women Connecticut and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, in March 2021. The piece will be teamed with music composed by Barbara Strozzi, performed by musicians Andrea Walker and Carolyn Craig.
The European Urge, 2021
Two small works, I’m a big fan (lot 278) and The European Urge (lot 279) will be available in the Art on a Postcard International Women’s Day 2021 Auction in aid of the Hepatitis C Trust. Bidding opens on 25 February until 11 March and starts at £50.
Pushing up Daisies, 2021
Three new prints from the series Going, Going, Gone are now available from Print Editions Gallery. Referencing vintage botanical sketches, each of the prints has been created from a number of line drawings of endangered, critically endangered or extinct British wildflowers.
Print Editions Gallery is a new publishing platform created to promote and support contemporary artists through an online portfolio of limited edition artist’s prints and photographs.
Carolyn Thompson is a British visual artist working predominantly with literature and place.
All text and images © Carolyn Thompson 2024