A WHITER SHADE OF PALE / 10/11/10 - 27/11/10
HILARY ELLIS

Private view: Tuesday 9th November / 6 - 9pm
Exhibition runs: Wednesday 10th to Saturday 27th November / 1pm - 6pm (Tues to Fri) / 1pm - 5pm (Sat)
Location: 20 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DP

Hilary Ellis uses pen, pencil, ink, needles, threads and perforations to create work thoroughly invested in texture and surface. Meticulously building up layer after layer, and combining lines made using thread with those that are drawn and scored, Ellis experiments with different combinations of process and media, and explores the relationship of creativity and ritual.
 
Both religious and secular societies rely on a framework of ritual which orders chaos, and instils a sense of comfort and safety that can also feel restrictive and narrowing. It is the space created by this dichotomy which Hilary Ellis explores. Ellis’ works are mixed media aggregations of repeated marks and actions that desire exact replication, but whose inevitable deviations expose the frailty of the human hand in attempting the pursuit of mechanical process. The use of thread and beads is deliberately reminiscent of the labour-intensive toil of sweat shops, whose employees’ existence is reduced to a series of stitches. The works’ restricted and predominantly muted palette hints as the ennui of such ritualistic and repetitive creation, yet touches of colour – a pink bead, red thread - constitute glimmers of optimism.
 
Swarm IV reflects the ritual of nature, in particular the idea of tides and swarms - the relentless movement of waves breaking on the shore and the manner in which insects or populations gather and disperse. The marks are both regular and erratic, with a microcosm of red that determines the concentration of the society of marks in one particular place, and yet the way in which the stitches across the rest of the piece face in the same direction indicates the telepathy of mob -or swarm- mentality, instinctive and contagious, natural but seemingly nonsensical.
 
The deliberate target-like aesthetic of Pale Remembered II creates an unsettling allusion to the eye, reflecting the viewer’s experience. Yet the challenge of this image is intentionally softened and undermined as we allow our gaze to wander around, behind and across the shape such that it drifts in and out of focus- a repetitive act which resembles the seeming futility of our search for meaning, and desperate need to categorise. The piece’s darker marks imply a geographical map, and in doing so introduce the horror of earthquake devastation the circles could represent, highlighting the power of nature and our comparative vulnerability.
 
Ellis’ works are constructed through a process of layering which is devoid of fervency, reduced to a futile and endless method of movement and application that exposes the hybridity of mixed media. The artist’s choice to stop work on a piece does not, however, herald its conclusion: it is a random decision which indicates the function of free will in a series of obsessive, almost mechanical processes we would usually associate with the writings of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. The artist quotes Sigmund Freud as saying that there exists only a very fine line between the ritual behaviour of the pious and the obsessive behaviour of neurotics. Ellis’ work therefore appears as a playful experiment, shrouding the potential risk of a method that lies explicitly on the periphery between the two.

Hilary Ellis is a graduate of Liverpool John Moores University (BA) and Camberwell College of Art (MA). Group exhibitions include Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (2009), Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London (2009), The Medical Foundation Art Auction, SUMARRIA LUNN, John McAslan + Partners/Royal Institution of Great Britain, London (2009), Imprint, RKB Gallery, London (2006), Proof, Kingsgate Gallery, London (2006), New London Artists, Gallery J, Akebono-so, Japan (2006) and By Invitation Only 3, Southport Arts Centre, Southport, Merseyside (2003). Ellis is recipient of a number of awards including the Intaglio Printmaking Award (2009), the St. Cuthbert’s Paper Mill Award (2008) and the Artichoke Print Workshop Prize (2007). The artist’s work is held in a number of private and public collections including the V&A Print Collection.

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Hilary Ellis - A Whiter Shade of Pale

Private view: Tuesday 9th November / 6 - 9pm

Exhibition runs: 10th to 27th November 2010 / 1pm - 6pm (Tues to Fri) / 1 - 5pm (Sat)

Location: 20 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DP