Rob Olins with Douglas Benford and Lee Berwick

New work in support of the House of Mirrors Acoustic Experience

Sounds by Douglas Benford and Lee Berwick

01-31 May 2014

Private View Wed 30 April 6-8pm

‘Sound Mirror’ installation

 This exhibition at Curwen Gallery during May includes multi-sensory works that have been developed by artist Rob Olins in partnership with Sound Artists Lee Berwick and Douglas Benford with support from Drake Music, CEDA and Falmouth University Academy for Innovation & Research (AIR). These installations use sound “mirrors” which reflect and focus sound to certain points marked by dots on the floor. These installations are to tour special schools in Wales and the South West of England during 2014-2015.

The large ‘Sound Mirrors’ are arranged so that people can pass between or around them. The variety of different ways the work can be experienced makes this highly engaging for those with disabilities. Those with limited or no vision can listen to the sound elements, others with hearing difficulties can appreciate the bright colours and vibrations. The ‘mirrors’ are constructed from a variety of surfaces which can be touched and moved around by the viewer, changing the pathways between the pieces. Walking through the installation between the ‘mirrors’, each different sound pool can be discovered. 

 

Rob Olins, Message 3
rare earth magnets, hand blown glass, length 31cm

Douglas Benford’s audio employs a collage of discovered sounds, recorded by him, from churches and cathedrals - interiors and exteriors – located across the UK, the Baltic states and Netherlands.

Lee Berwick is a sonic artist, producing sound design, composing sound scores, making sound installations and works with a range of collaborators internationally on different projects.

 

Rob Olins, Wave 2
rare earth magnets, painted steel, length 47cm

Also exhibited in the gallery exhibition are Rob Olins’ latest works which use magnets in glass and steel environments. These are also pieces informed by his work with people with special needs. These works reflect on the challenges and possibilities of communication and our desire to achieve this in different ways.

Gravure prints by Rob Olins and Douglas Benford (pictured below) will also be showing. The images show a heightened and adapted view everyday reality, a visual representation of the acoustic experience.

Rob Olins and Douglas Benford,Sound 3
gravure prints, edition of 20, 16 x 16cm

For further information on the project visit http://www.drakemusic.org/news/house-mirrors-sensory-experience

For more information on the exhibition see http://www.curwengallery.co.uk/gallery/olins14/title.htm  

For further information on Douglas Benford visit www.douglasbenford.org.uk and for information on Lee Berwick visit www.leeberwick.com

Katharine Holmes

KATHARINE HOLMES

01-31 May 2014

Private View Wednesday 30 April 6-8pm

Malham Limestone, Hazy Warmth, oil on linen, 50 x 70cm

Katharine Holmes is an artist who has become known for her paintings of the Northern British Landscape, predominantly her native Yorkshire Dales.
She often paints outside, braving all weathers all year round. She frequently incorporates elements of the landscape such as grasses and gravels found on site into her paintings, adding natural texture to these works. Holmes’s dedication to painting out in the elements is rewarded; the sense of actually being in the landscape is beautifully captured with in the finished painting.

There is a feeling these paintings have been torn from a giant sketchbook, their rough and irregular edges, allowing the viewer a glimpse of a moment spent out walking on the Dales.

Swaledale,a Hazy Day, watercolour, acrylic, ink and pastel and collage on paper, 56 x 76cm

Following training in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Katharine returned to Yorkshire in 1990. She exhibits her work nationally and internationally and her paintings are in many private and corporate collections including that of Leeds University where she held her first major solo exhibition in 1999. In the last decade Katharine has travelled widely and painted in Japan, Kenya, New England, Italy and Greece, each time returning not just with paintings but with a renewed appreciation of the landscape of home.

For enquiries please email Natalie@curwengallery.com or tel 0207 323 4700. For more information, including the online catalogue for the exhibition see www.curwengallery.co.uk/gallery/holmes14/title.htm