Head to Manchester to see an exhibition of new work by artist Sarah Boulter, which she developed during her time as a Venice Fellow.
Sarah spent a month out in Venice, from May - June 2017, and used her 12 days of research to develop a series of etchings that look at the lifestyle enhancing and performative qualities of social media and dating apps. Her work focuses on ritual and routine as well as private and public performance.
Based in Manchester, Sarah is currently undertaking a Masters of Contemporary Fine Art at University of Salford, one of the British Council’s Venice Fellowships partners, and Public Relations #1 is her first solo exhibition. Here’s a statement about her show:
“Venice proved a prolific time in terms of Sarah’s practice. Whilst there and subsequently, she drew, took photos, and made hours of video footage. Rather than the outside city, interiors are the focus and we find a cache of over-stylised, sickly, gaudy mise-en-scenes. Melodramatic opulence, hefty golden frames, peach flock walls, fancy bed spreads, marquetry, lacquered screens, lurid silk flowers, lace tablecloths, kitsch ornaments, cornicing and candelabras are all-pervasive and externalise the narrative of Sarah’s characters.
Sarah’s interest in the ultra-feminine and previous work looking at ideas of intimacy in relation to dating apps, the desperation for constant human contact via internet and the inevitable failings thereof, develop organically within the Venetian environment as she creates an exploration of private and public performance, private spaces as the movie set and our mundane actions within.”
The exhibition at PAPER, a gallery that represents a range of emerging and mid-career artists whose practice is based around the medium of paper, and is on view from 19 August - 30 September 2017.
On 12 September, Public Relations #2, the video companion to this series of etchings is presented in the Soup Kitchen basement, 31-33 Spear Street, Manchester, from 6pm.
