Seed Head

Posted by Charlotte Squire

 

photo credits Nicky Hirst 2022

 Spirit figures in mask & costume evoke a magic realism of an older culture needing to be recalled as the natural world struggles with our careless treatment of it….

over lockdown the garden became a sanctuary to grow plants to eat and become reacquainted with the seasonal evolution of plants in my patch. Cv19 year 1 was a wonderful growing year. In year 2, my small patch of crops was decimated by unseasonal plagues of caterpillars and slugs drawing me to think about superstitions, ancient deities and past ritual practice invoked to protect the seasons cycles.

Performing Green curated by Kim Thornton provided an environment to add a performance strand to my practice that I had not previously considered

Experimental filmmaker Anne Robinson’s ‘the Hurrier’

Posted by Charlotte Squire

Scolds bridle, yokes for hauling, time travel flight helmet and antennae for communication – some of the elements in a head gear commission requested by artist/ film maker Anne Robinson for her in-progress improvised altered film The Hurrier , ‘exploring labour, time travel, sexuality and working class women’s bodies’ ; the constrictions and restrictions placed on women and their personal strategies for liberation.

Screening at APT  later this year, then 500years gallery and venue tba in Scotland 2022

Lou Barnell improvised performing in my head gear for the Hurrier

‘Four Legs Good Two Legs Bad’ at Q-Park Leicester Square

Posted by Charlotte Squire

One hundred international artists showing in an art take-over in an underground car park. Four legs good, two legs bad  riffs on themes from George Orwell’s dystopian novel Animal Farm in a 4 day festival of art music performance and dance, celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Pig.

My installation Lean Times is of a thin and dejected trio of textile pig-people in opposition to the bloated greedy pig so often portrayed.

Curated by Rebecca Feiner of Elements Gallery

The Ghost Tide at Thames Side Studio Gallery

Posted by Charlotte Squire

photo Andy Keate

The GHost Tide, an exhibition exploring ghosts as an idea, programmed  to coincide with Halloween , All Souls and the Day of the Dead, curated by GHost host artist curator Sarah Sparkes and CANAL Gallery founder Monika Bobinska. Showing the work of 30 uk and international artists.

Andrea G Art, Chris Boyd, Davies Monaghan & Klein, Gen Doy, Sarah Doyle, Graham Dunning, Diane Eagles, Andrew Ekins, Charlie Fox, Katie Goodwin, Kim Griffith, Miyuki Kasahara, Calum F Kerr, Rob Le Frenais, David Leapman, Liane Liang, Toby MacLennan, Laura Marker, Josie McCoy, Jane Millar, Output Arts, Miroslav Pomichal, Brothers Quay, Anne Robinson, Edwin Rostron, Matt Rowe, Sarah Sparkes, Charlotte Squire, Sara Trillo, Run Ting Tsai, Kate Walters, Patrick White, Heidi Wigmore, Neal Willis, Mary Jacob, Neda Zarfsaz

Feel Good Give Away at the Chutney Spa

Posted by Charlotte Squire

Invoking the spirit of the ancient Camberwell Fair and its promise of ‘Rare doings in Camberwell’, the Chutney Preserves artist collective open a one day health and beauty spa on Camberwell Green. Offering humorous range of surreal and exclusive artist created treatments to the public. the Chutney Preserves promise to deliver ‘beyond alternative care’ to the community.

Charlotte Squire presents her Feel Good Give Away –  a selection of objects, books and etceteras that are free for visitors to take away, provided it is a gift for someone. That feel-good-feeling is passed on by making a drawing of the person it is for with their gift!! Also on the stall If Life Gives you Lemons homemade lemonade

Armida’s vexation

Posted by Charlotte Squire

Charlotte Squire creates a sense of wonder and anxiety with her sculptural forms. Her work uses illumination to draw attention to the transformation of mundane materials into something that both engages and unsettles.

This installation was created specially for Dreaming Awake as part of the Dulwich Festival.

Armedia is betrayed by her mortal lover, and uses her powers as a sorceress to keep him prisoner in an enchanted garden.
In Tassos epic poem he is rescued by 2 soldiers but returns to find the distressed Armedia. She loses her power and becomes mortal to stay with him.

Armida’s Vexation part of Dreaming Awake at Safehouse1.

Dreaming Awake

Posted by Charlotte Squire

8 artists probe the liminal state between reality and dreams where the imagination is held as if suspended . Visual connections are made through painting, collage, installation, film, ritual, photography, sculpture and drawing, with Jacquie Brown, Leonie Cronin, Rebecca Fortnum, Nicky Hirst, Laura Moreton-Griffiths, Lucy Soni, Charlotte Squire and Kim Thornton.

The architectural atmosphere and history of this derelict house offer a multi-sensory experience. Breathing life into the subliminal world of innate awareness the artists translate these lucid dreams and thoughts into visible ‘actions’ in response to the building.

‘It is tempting to think that the real world and the world of dreams are totally separate.’ (Dr Susan Blackmore, Lucid Dreaming: Awake in your sleep?)

The philosopher Decartes believed that dreams are a sequence of experiences often similar to those we commonly have in waking life. Hobbes questioned this using the principle of coherence, we can think more critically in waking life and we know when we are awake as the absurdity is no longer there. Harnessing the power of conscious thought Dreaming Awake merges dreams with real life to suggest different hidden states.

Uncanny World of Interiors

Posted by Charlotte Squire

UWoI e-invite5
Our interior space for living is where we are most revealed, as here we make our most personal mark. The temporary domestic space at Caroline Place showcases the work of 8 artists and designers working with everyday materials, transforming the mundane into objects of desire.

The unheimlich of Freud’s analysis wherein things pertaining to homeliness and domesticity are somewhat wrong footed by one thing or another, subjective to be sure, make us question what exactly ‘home’ is. A place? A feeling? A tribe we belong to? This is a subject that has substantial contemporary currency as migration and dislocation move cultures from places of conflict or through economic displacement. Small items may be carried from one place to another – or left behind, to be found later and integrated into the scheme of things. Such items and dislocation surface in the disrupted home environment of the Uncanny World of Interiors.