Escaping - Resident Artists' Interpretation

On September 25^th  2012, the Art Gallery of Lambeth’s resident artists will be exhibiting works from their show ‘ESCAPING’. The show will run until November the 3^rd, with the opening reception being October 5^th from 7-10 pm.

The word escape can mean anything from breaking free of captivity, avoiding situations and memories, to just taking a break.  The act of escaping can give temporary freedom from worry, care or unpleasantness.  At some point in all our lives we have experienced a need to escape. 

The resident artists of the Art Gallery of Lambeth have been given the freedom to interpret their meaning of escaping and to find ways of transferring thoughts into tangible elements through their medium.  The show is unique and each artist has worked on this collaborative show in their own studios. This paradox of working alone towards a common theme has left the expression ‘Escaping’ open for interpretation.  Each artist’s work promises to be a study in originality and individuality.

For St. Thomas painter and photographer Judy Ross, escaping is “…not to run from but to embrace reality, either by physically being in a special place or to be transported to that place in your mind where there is peace, solitude and renewing of spirit, to return refreshed”.  Her work celebrates the combination of photography and poetry.

For Mississauga artist Marianne Morris, escaping is a metaphysical transportation that occurs through music.  She has been working in a series of paintings that capture moments in time of musicians playing.

     “For me, music is the ultimate escape. It sets the tone, influences the mood... changing the soundtrack can change everything. My ‘Escape’ paintings are a series of musicians, playing alone or in a group, interpretive but not portraits. I try to reflect how picking up an instrument can make you lose yourself... how the music, the musician and the instrument are each a part of the same whole.”

In another series of interpretations, sculptor Melissa Kempf and photographer Philip Schmidt have teamed up to take ‘Escaping’ to another level. 

 Kempf draws her inspiration from Schmidt’s photograph ‘Harlequin Ducks’. She creates a response to his photograph with a soapstone carving entitled ‘Escaping the Current’.  Kempf focuses on the idea of escape through flight. 
    “In this work I bring forward the subject matter of a Harlequin duck outside of its surroundings shown in Schmidt's photograph and glorifying its attempt to escape with flight. I have focused on a contrast of action between Schmidt's work and mine whereby what is stationary in his work (ducks sitting on the rocks) has been created as the action in my work (a duck made of stone escaping the current of a river through flight.”

Whatever escape means to you, there will be a piece of art that you can appreciate and connect with at the Gallery.

Come and celebrate the’ Escaping’ see you there!

Vivian Tserotas