In tandem with my print project, From Absorb to Zoom: An Alphabet of Actions in the Women’s Art Library, I am inviting selected artists with documentation in the WAL archive to send me images of recent work to feature on this project blog.
Oona Grimes works with books, print and mixed media. Her show, Chapter Two, is on view at Danielle Arnaud in London, from 8 November to 14 December, 2014.
the dress me up: 2013, 75.5cm x 168cm, spray paint on paper on foamex
I love the way Grimes describes her practice:
Oona Grimes is a compulsive draw-er, scribbler and storyteller. Working with books and multiples, etching and mixed-media, she embraces redundant print process; re-cycling obsolete materials and last of stock.
Grimes conjures narratives subverted by the mistranslation of myth, gossip and verse. Language is re-calibrated, signposts are written over; it is a universe of vile deeds and mysterious contracts. William Bligh, Fred West, John Dee and Carroll’s Alice rub shoulders in cocktail distillations of individual and collective memory.
slightly foxed: 2014, 74.5cm x 111cm, spray paint on paper on di-bond
supreme pancake: 2013, 74.5cm x 111cm, spray paint on paper on di-bond
natural puff: 2014, 74.5cm x 111cm, spray paint on paper on di-bond
Recent works take the form of an exploded book unyoked from a single narrative. In a land without signposts, strange playful figures and alien text toy with our need to decode and translate. Not non-sense but an alternate order which warps time and memory, like fractal geometries of chaos.
foliaduh: 2013, 74.5cm x 111cm, spray paint on paper on di-bond
Oona Grimes: http://oonagrimes.com
To learn more about the Women’s Art Library:
http://www.gold.ac.uk/make/
To support From Absorb to Zoom on Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/650466689/an-art-project-celebrating-the-womens-art-library
