JEANNIE HIGNELL Ar t Consu l t an t

April 2011 AFJH/001 PRESS RELEASE

FILLING THE CRACKS Two distinguished artists offer a moving glimpse into the fragility of our sense of ‘home’

based on their own inherited narratives of domestic disruption.

The art space at No 1 Middle Street, Stroud is the setting for an ingenious and thought-

provoking collaborative exhibition combining the sharply precise photography of John

Heseltine and the richly-textured layered paintings of Angela Findlay.

Many will know John’s superb photographic images through exhibitions around the country

as well as from countless books and magazines in the UK and Europe. Here he

addresses his fascination with domestic objects and the built environment, placing them in

a historical and societal context but with distinct references to the contemporary world.

Angela departs from her hugely popular paintings of mud skies, and using her

characteristically impactful colour palette she focusses on deeply evocative abstractions of

interiors and everyday life, often combining her painterly techniques with John’s images

and linking past and present in perfect but ambiguous harmony.

When the two artists met, they found that not only did they share the confusions of dual

nationality, but each was on a pilgrimage of discovery, a passionate and lifelong search for

identity, understanding and a sense of place. The everyday minutiae that makes up the

fabric of family life and its often-unrecognised impact on all our lives, is beautifully way-

marked throughout their exhibition. The effects of domestic turmoil and loss are subtly

commented upon, with reference to seemingly ordinary objects, as they research, recall

and re-tell their own stories.

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FILLING THE CRACKS cont. April 2011 AFJH/001

For Anglo-German Angela this is through her mother’s childhood flight from war-torn

Berlin, as cleverly depicted in the Battenberg cake video – a teatime disrupted. For John, it

is through his childhood lack of domestic permanence, his almost nomadic home life in

Europe and the United States, and his enforced renunciation of crucial personal

memorabilia.

Whilst we often see this portrayed through the popular media in literature, film, family-

tracing documentaries and websites, it is rarely exemplified so achingly through the visual

arts.

At times literally fused together, their work reveals the deeply etched sense of dislocation

resulting from lost or abandoned domestic objects and memories. It is a poignant insight

into the huge significance of belongings and belonging and through them the primeval

need within all of us to mark our place in the continuum of human history - a theme surely

repeating itself in the ongoing cultural turbulence around the world today.

The first in a collaborative series by these two celebrated artists, this is an experience not

to be missed and one, which will strike a deep chord.

Exhibition Dates :

Friday – Sunday 3 rd – 5th June 2011 11am – 6pm

Thursday - Sunday 9 th – 12th June 2011 11am – 6pm

No 1 Middle Street, Stroud, GL5 1DZ

www.heseltine.co.uk

www.angelafindlay.com

There will be an evening of conversation/discussion with the artists about the work

in the gallery on Thursday 9 th June, 7pm.

Free, but booking advisable.

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For further information contact Jeannie Hignell: jeannie.hignell@sky.com 07887 752821

Wave Hill Horns Road Stroud Glos GL5 1EE 07887 752821