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Don't Ignore the Periphery

1/3/2025

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Don’t Ignore the Periphery
Amanda Alderson & Brad Coleman
At the Midland Junction Arts Centre
1 March - 17 April

Featuring contemporary jewellery and monotype prints, the exhibition explores the creative process as a reflective and transformative act.

I met with Brad & Amanda last week as they were installing the exhibition, and they have given me some insight into the work, which I was invited to share as a guest speaker at the opening event last night.

They see this as very much a collaborative exhibition, and it was also a way for them to explore artmaking as a action, and as a daily meditative act. Here you will find these artists reframing boundaries, not as barriers to the creative life, but as essential elements to be woven back into the creative journey. Brad’s large, bold, and extensive collection of monotype prints are juxtaposed with Amanda’s delicate wearable art pieces. The common threads are a dedication to a daily practice as well as connections with form and colour, and an interest in abstracted, textured, meditative works that reflect process-driven experimentation. 

Perhaps there is a yin and yang energy to be found here too. As you will so often find in partnerships, here you can sense the artists distinct personalities and they way that they overlap, mix, and resonate. Like in so many partnerships, they tell me that one is a morning person, the other a night owl.  One has a studio outdoors, the other indoors. When they are working, one listens to drone metal music; the other, gothic Horror novels. And the works themselves speak of the moon and sun, both are to be found as recurring motifs in both artist’s work.  Yet there is common ground in the materiality, mindfulness, the act of creation.

Brad described having to sort the work into ‘gangs’ of works, as he has created a staggering number of works, some 1,500 odd, over the past few summer months. The first gang - he describes as “Landscapes, kind of, (and landscapes of the mind)”. They are gel prints made early in the morning during the summer, and a way to prepare for the day ahead. To find some solace in a studio practice and a way to calm the mind and organise the thoughts.

Working in summer, outdoors, every morning, also meant that he was frequently responding to the news, fires, the landscape, and responding to outside stimulus. Ideas have a way of emerging in the morning, perhaps refined by winnowing, looking for the gold flecks of thoughts that suddenly seem refined by the filters of dreams. There are multiple techniques employed to achieve the effects that you can see; stencilling, collaging and experiments in texture. In the ‘Texture Gang’ – you will find crackled textures, created by putting drying inks into the freezer. There is also a strong influence of Japanese Woodblock prints in the compositions of these works.

Amanda has been furthering her exploration into jewellery making by studying online at the Jeweller’s Academy, learning new things and refining skills, whilst struggling with neurological illness that has had a profound impact on the way she thinks. The rings are stamped with messages / affirmations, inside the band of each ring is a small message to the anonymous future wearer of the piece. These phrases are poetic and will likely have meaning to the artist, and then take on new meaning with the wearer or the new owner, who will inevitably bring their own meaning. Using silver, copper – and stones, cubic zirconia, moonstone - Amanda thinks of designs on paper, first in a drawing, and then realising them in metal. In most cases, these designs are directly referencing Brad’s prints – the texture, form and colour all apparent, yet are instantly taking on their own distinctive and unique energy in a small sculptural form. One piece in particular we talked about. Titled “parts of a whole; whole of parts”, it speaks of the idea that parts of a person can become fragmented over time, through aging, through illness, and how our sense of identity can become fragmented through external influences.
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The periphery seems to be an intangible thing; a thing that is at the edge of our vision, always slightly out of reach. This is an area that artists learn to be comfortable with – or perhaps they are naturally more comfortable with uncertainty. It is a useful tool to embrace the periphery when navigating through life. I think at it’s heart, this exhibition, Don’t Ignore the Periphery, embraces this willingness to explore the edges of things– both physical and metaphorical.

Further reading:

studio.amandaalderson.com/current-collections/dont-ignore-the-periphery/
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www.instagram.com/BradColemanCreative


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