"Identikit" at Red Gate Gallery - Tel: 020 73260993 in London tickets and event info

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Private View:                                   11^th of July - 6 pm to 11 pm

Exhibition runs from:                    11^th of July to 17th of July 2008

Gallery Opening Hours:                Sat, Mon, Tues, Wed: 2.30 pm - 6.30 pm

Last day of Exhibition:                  Thurs 17^th of May: 11.00am to 5.00pm

The forthcoming exhibition of works by Jo Bodley, Anna Courcha and Angie Singh expresses an interest in identity and clothing. All three artists approach this issue in various ways, yet portray and address different angles of an age old dialogue between personal identity and its expression through garments as well as the significance of those when separated from the bearer. This exhibition reflects the artists’ need to preserve, represent and transform items of clothing; precious or unimportant items which have recorded and still record social history, within them, they hold the enigma of identity and clothing.

Angie Singh reasons that you can tell quite a lot about someone by what they wear, but still thinks appearances can be misleading. The artist observes: “Take me for instance - I usually have scruffy unflattering cheap leggings on and grubby fingernails as I spent most of my time working in my garden and doing DIY. In my head I am gorgeously original and elegant; wearing gorgeous dresses made from delicate lace and embroidered silk, which corresponds with my idealised self as an intellectual aesthete.” Angie Singh’s work is about reconciling the mundane (e.g. gardening gloves) with the imaginary dream (e.g. tissue paper dresses) in order to explore the contradictions of apparel and identity, dreams and reality.

Anna Courcha is concerned with the way a person’s character can be conveyed by the clothing they wear. She examines how much of this is a projection of the true character of the person, or an image created by the clothing itself? Do we become what we wear? Or could items of clothing take on our personal traits?  A central element of Anna’s work is the idea of personal trace or fragments of the soul or character being transferred to, and absorbed by the clothing. In her work she has also concentrated on items of clothing alone, as she still wants to convey the human presence, although the people who have worn the clothing are absent from the scene.

“Garments could already have their own characteristics, regardless of the wearer. I have always been interested in the idea of inanimate objects having their own inherent life, for instance in folk stories, where garments could transfer magical powers to the wearer, transforming and enabling them in some way. I feel that even in real life, clothes can still do this for us, by allowing us to transcend banal, everyday reality and enter a world of imagination and fantasy. “ (Courcha 2007)

One of Jo Bodley’s early key pieces was a facsimile of a leather biker's jacket out of paint and canvas with badges on it. For the artist this jacket remains a potent symbol of protection, shelter and camouflage. She continuously questions her works, which have now taken the shape of boxed, tiny jackets, made from leaf skeletons, encrusted with shells; maquettes for larger works, or ends in themselves?

“If a leather biker's jacket becomes a template for something made out of lace and lit with fairy lights; does it lose its iconic power or demonstrate a different kind of strength?” (Bodley 2008) The above are central questions the artist explores within her work.

Red Gate Gallery

Nearest Buses from Brixton/Camberwell: 35 (From Clapham Junction), 45 (From Kings X), 345 (From Sth Ken to Peckham), P4 (Brixton to Lewisham) Nearest Train: Loughborough Junction ( Thames Link, via Kings X to Sutton)