- Venue
- The Muse Gallery
- Starts
- Thursday, October 31, 2019
- Ends
- Sunday, November 17, 2019
- Address
- 269 Portobello Road, W11 1LR
- Location
- London
- Organiser
- The Muse Gallery
The Muse Gallery proudly presents
Margaret Ashman
Higher Ground
31.10-17.11.2019
Opening Night 31.10.2019, 6.30-9.00pm
The Muse is proud to present Margaret Ashman, at her first solo show at the gallery. Featured in this new body of work are two distinctive threads; The Ogamu Series –a collection emulating physicality and a sense of movement, and The Mori Series – work encompassing a more reflective and calmer aesthetic.
Margaret has previously focused on figurative imagery, movement and the human form being the foundaion of her narratives. Her recent introduction of forest landscapes creates a new dynamic and allows the artist to explore the interplay of light and space, human form and the geometry and tones of nature.
Margaret’s Ogamu Serieswas inspired by video footage of the US dancer Tashara Gavin-Moorehead, as she performed workshops to the Witney Houston song ‘I love the Lord’. Margaret corresponded with Tashara, who lives and works in California, and was granted permission to use the video footage to make the work.
Margaret uses a low resolution filter to create a painterly style, blending several colours of ink on the etching plates to achieve an ethereal effect – one she feels projects a sense of movement and flow within each piece.
The lyrics of ‘I love the Lord’:
I love the Lord, he heard my cry and pitied every groan,
long as I live, and troubles rise, I hasten to His throne…
Witney sings the song with great passion and sorrow in her voice, beautifully interpreted by the movement of Tashara’s perfomances.
Margaret uses japanese words as titles for the richness of the meaning for their sound, a synesthesia of light and sound typical of her work.
Ogamu(pray, adore, venerate, offer worship)
Naku(cry or sing)
Nayami(problem, worry, distress, agony, anguish)
Junan(suffering, passion, affliction, anguish)
Joi(joy)
Kaisai(exalt, hold up)
Margaret’s Woods Series began with a video of Indonesian dancer Kezia Alyssa Sandy. She was performing in a studio to the worship song, In Christ Alone. Kezia glady granted permission for Margaret to use the video to make etchings.
The trees were drawn digitally alongside the image of the dancer in photoshop and transferred to steel plates by photo etching. The drawings are based on memory and are not representative of a particular place. These works continue an exploration of Margaret’s typical concerns of solitude, inner searching and longing.
Again, Japanese title were chosen for the works:
Haysashi(forest)
Mori(which means ‘woods’)
Akai Doresu (which means The Red Dress)
