‘Syllabus’ – Lee Page Hanson

Castlefield Gallery is proud to present two exhibitions of new work by North West artists. In the Main Gallery “Cupboard Love” by Susan Walsh presents new paintings and sculptures that create a magical-menacing world reminiscent of childhood stories, and in the Project Space “Syllabus” by ceramicist Lee Page Hanson revisits theories used to teach drawing and painting as a method of re-examining his making.

These two exhibitions work in complementary contrast, both Walsh and Hanson being primarily concerned with the process of making. Their work explores different aspects of interiors, from the physical environment to the decorative, providing us with a reworking of the familiar.

Susan Walsh nurtures an obsession for cupboards, wardrobes and chests, more so, objects that contain, enclose, collect, and hide histories. For “Cupboard Love”, she brings together new paintings and sculptures, and ventures into video and sound to further explore her furniture fictions. Walsh has produced detailed paintings on paper either monochrome or multi-coloured, the images represent a ‘blueprint’ for remembering, people, places, circumstances that negotiate the effects of time and memory within real and invented histories.

Walsh’s large sculptures mark a new departure in her work. Old and new furniture is modified and amalgamated in the creation of hybrid constructions, unique to their time, interlaced with fantasy, functional but not practical. They explore the impact of change and evolution on objects and make visible the collision of past and present experience. These sculptures are containers of the past, vessels in the present, and storage solutions for the future.

When Lee Page Hanson began teaching drawing and painting, it marked a new phase in his work as a ceramicist. “Syllabus” is an exhibition of new work that revisits the theories and techniques used to teach art, as a means of re-evaulating Hanson’s own making. He has introduced some principles of art theory including line, form, light, shade and colour, into a series of ceramic tiles and objects to draw on the weight of history, knowledge and understanding of the visual arts.

Each series of works are presented with a theory lifted from a published text that comments on how we begin to understand the visual world.

Overall both “Cupboard Love” and “Syllabus” propel the viewer back to a state of innocent curiosity, looking at the ways in which we explore, acquire, and understand a knowledge of ourselves.

MORE ON LEE PAGE HANSON:
Lee Hanson moved to Manchester in 1991 after graduating from Sunderland Polytechnic in BA(Hons) Three Dimensional Design, Glass and Ceramics. He is currently Art Tutor at the Northern Education and Resettlement Services and divides his time between teaching art and ceramics and the designing and production of his work. Hanson has exhibited widely in the North West and his studio is currently based in Manchester Craft and Design Centre.