Solo exhibition at Vittoria Street Gallery in Birmingham by Cass Head of 3D Design Marianne Forrest
Date: 19 October 2018
Acts of Resistance at the Vittoria Street Gallery in Birmingham City University is a solo exhibition by Marianne Forrest, the celebrated watchmaker and creator of sculptural timepieces for urban spaces who leads the 3D Design area at The Cass.
As the seasons change and the clocks turn back for the autumn equinox this timely exhibition showcases Marianne’s lifelong obsession with time. During her career as a master silversmith she has not only made machines and timepieces to tell the time but has also examined the idea of time through processes used in drawing and making.
Timepieces on display will include watches that wear away with time, pocket watches created as evidence of moments and wristwatches with inlaid metals capturing fragments as visual reminders of moments past and fractions of memory. The centrepiece for the exhibition is BREATHE, a pendulum that illustrates time through motion not only in itself but in the attraction of fine elements that reach towards it as it passes above like wind on grass. BREATHE encourages the viewer to pause and wait, watching the mesmerising passage of the pendulum.
Alongside the three-dimensional pieces her exhibited drawings explore resistance in the form of barriers that represent the obstacles to creative practice that occur as a part of everyday life. These include ideas which reference divergence, interruptions, interference, massing, collections, repetition and collective fingerprints. This draws on feelings and fragments captured as a method of making via contrasting archetypes of speed versus slowness and digital versus analogue. These starting points have enabled a discovery of processes which are visually articulated in the making of final pieces and drawn panels. These four meter long majestic drawings created through speed and slowness describe resistance to the passing of time and the loss of moments. It is in effect a rage against the passage of time and yet a celebration of the time spent in creative practice.
Although a solo show Marianne has deep concerns with the social functions of design and of drawing in particular. Her practice and development for the show has encompassed the engagement of others in drawing as a collective and cohesive approach to social interaction. Therefore these drawings are created with the help of others, working together on one canvas as a team, leaving behind the evidence of their coming together for a moment in time. The works are attributed but simultaneously anonymous as each mark merges with that of the next leaving behind traces of time well spent.
It is hoped that Acts of Resistance will be exhibited at The Cass in 2019.
Watch a Film about Acts of Resistance Here
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