Jessica Cooper …. but plastic is beautiful
8 April - 20 May 2017
…what if it were possible for a work to be conceived beyond the self, a work that allowed us to escape the limited perspective of the individual ego, not only in order to enter other similar selves but to give voice to that which cannot speak – the bird perched on the gutter, the tree in spring and the tree in autumn, stone, cement, plastic…
(Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium,1988)
…. but plastic is beautiful
this show explores the things that at first glance we may miss
the plastic waste and discarded material and the smaller weed and plant, both hidden and growing in the undiscovered corners
no less important than the obvious beauty and aesthetics of the architecture and flowers of kestle, these simple things continue to inspire me
they have formed the basis of the show through a series of large abstracted paintings of plastic and smaller intimate plant pieces
supported by the notes and drawings in my sketchbooks and accompanied by a short film of documented moments and finds within the garden
all the works are linked by my personal investigation of the story of the ‘red thread of fate’
– Jessica Cooper 2016
