There is a massive white rock on the road outside the gallery.
There is a legend carved into its three flat sides.
KNIVES ARE MOTHERS
Heather and Ivan Morrison, are the latest artists showing at Bristol’s WORKS|PROJECTS, 6 months in the city and today (I confess) was my first visit. I was ready to immerse myself…
The collaborative pair, have previously focused upon human navigation through catastrophe and the potential violence of change, successfully managing to transcend art, theatre and architecture. Their visual conversation has often worked around a wider social overview. Since then, their focus has shifted. Instead, in Mothers are Knives, we see individual movements beyond moments of personal calamity, through a variety of perspectives, from mother, to father to daughter.
“Daughters are spoons. Sometimes they grow into knives”…
Throughout the space, we are guided through a dark and theatrical narrative, twisted and hidden between red glass, charred wood and carved chunks of chalk.
Angular photographic prints, inside their uniquely made frames, in pairs, with counterpart prints hidden by a blood red sheen. Each component, is a snippet of a narrative, seemingly filled with Americana, the shifting of time and the undertone of a danger or violence, that is never confirmed to the viewer…perhaps the red glass is an attempt to represent a series of secrets or hidden details?
Unpicking and building my own strange story while walking through the gallery, has been something I’ve really enjoyed. Building up a picture of the artists depiction of a fictional family, with dreams of chicken farms the consistent motif of a glazed donut, has enabled surprisingly provocative results. The more you think about the package presented, the more the story unfolds…
So, come down to WORKS|PROJECTS if you have the chance, as Knives Are Mothers is running until 15th March.
For more information about WORKS|PROJECTS and their program CLICK HERE
@WORKSPROJECTS
