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Open: Wed-Fri 11am-6.30pm, Sat 12-5pm

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Artist: Michael Brennand-Wood

Taste Contemporary presents Thoughtforms – Questions We Ask of Ourselves, a solo exhibition of work by Michael Brennand-Wood.

While constantly evolving and ever reflective of the questions he has asked himself at different times, there is a line of enquiry that runs through the work of Michael Brennand-Wood; a narrative constructed in thread. This exhibition maps these areas of enquiry, journeys undertaken and territories visited. Early works sit alongside recent works. They are in effect postcards from the edges of creativity.

An explorer of visual territories, Michael Brennand-Wood has always been drawn to the border areas, the margins between disciplines, the points at which ideas overlap, blurring distinctions as to whether it’s a textile, object, painting, applied or fine art statement. ‘Definitions of an area’s ideology are often a form of protectionism and control,’ says Brennand-Wood. ‘I belong firmly to the what if school of thought.’ For Brennand-Wood, threads are symbolic of both connection and repair, a comparatively fragile material that is surprisingly strong, a unifier of the fragmented.

‘In the beginning there was always the same dream, to source a mythical aerosol spray to solidify the air,’ he says. ‘The intention to stitch 3 dimensionally, no fabric, no ground; a lattice of interlaced threads in varying degrees of complexity floating in space. There is something so beautiful about a simple stitch; remove the ground, dismiss any functional requirements and the structure becomes an exquisite unit of rhythmic construction. My agenda was to return to the source, to look at the geometrical structure of primal stitches and rebuild. Stitchery would no longer be applied to an existing image it would become the image itself. That aspiration continues and is reflected in this selection.’

‘I’ve become increasingly aware that creativity is not just a linear progression. There’s a command on my embroidery software return to origin which I find both amusing and philosophically intriguing. Clearly, I can’t go back in time physically, but I can go back through space in terms of ideas. The aspiration is not to repeat but to find new associations and connections that might have been missed the first time.’

all images © the gallery and the artist(s)