6th – 30th June 2008
Helter Skelter
Paintings by Rachael Weitzman
Private Views:
Tuesday June 10th 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Thursday June 12th 6.30 – 8.30pm
and
Sunday June 15th 12.00 – 3.00pm
when the gallery and garden will be open for the Chelsea Festival
Viewing by appointment at other times
For further information contact Jonathan Ross:
Phone 07747 807576
or
jross@gallery286.com
Rachael Weitzman Exhibitions
2011
2008
Installation Views
Figures run, trying to be the fastest.
Families picnic in the park.
Parachutes hang in the air above a ferris wheel.
These are scenes of people at play, some seeking the buzz of adrenaline, part of the fun.
The car suddenly drops on the roller coaster.
These paintings look at the human desire to flirt with death and our fascination with catastrophe.
Often thrill seeking is juxtaposed with a real, impending threat.
Each piece holds in stasis an unfolding event. Often the different speeds of the brush: slow, careful pointillism or sweeping gestural mark vie with each other and echo the struggle for containment within the painting.
Some paintings are ambiguous. Is the white paint drawn across the bare linen just light behind the figures or is it approaching smoke?
Sometimes a disaster is clearly happening. An explosion detonated on a busy street sets in motion a pyrotechnic display that completely engulfs the twinkling fairy lights.
The figures are at once present and absent. Often they are just a space of blank canvas. As silhouettes they each display individual characteristics while being part of the mass, a crowd of strangers.
Referencing contemporary graphic novels, pop art and nineteenth century Japanese print these paintings are also influenced by film. Film is, perhaps, the medium most concerned with disaster as spectacle.
The “Helter Skelter” group of paintings ask questions about how we deal with fear, how we process unprecedented events and how we view our fellow human beings in emergency.
Do we know what we’d do? Can we imagine what we’d see?
By exploring these questions the paintings seek to exorcise some of the demons that from the paranoia of contemporary, urban existence.
Rachael Weitzman May 2008
CV
Education
1997-1998 MA in Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design
1994-1997 BA in Fine Art (2.1), Chelsea College of Art and Design
1993-1994 Foundation 1986-1989 BA in English Literature (2.1), University of Bristol
Exhibitions/Commissions
2007
Allotment – group show, Seven Seven Gallery, Broadway Market E8
Solo Show – Oxford House, Derbyshire, Street, BethnalGreen,London
2006
Solo Show – The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust Hospital,Sydney Street, London SW3 6NP
2005
Solo Show – Chambers of David Farrer QC, 7 Bedford Row, London WC2
2005
‘Night On Earth’ – group show, The Oh! Art Gallery at The Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, London E2 6HG
2002
Object, Objective, Objection’ – group show, Tramp Gallery, London
2000
Solo Show – Cable Street Gallery, Cable Street Studios, London
1999
‘Trek’ – group show – The Time Bar, London
1997
Braas Exhibition – group show, Frankfurt, Germany
1997
BZW Building, Barclays Bank – Canary Wharf – London
1996
King Sturge Art Prize Exhibition – Davies Street Gallery – London
1996
Cranfield Conference Centre – Milton Keynes
1996
Ride a Cock Horse’, Chamber of Pop Culture – the Horse Hospital -London
1995
King Sturge Art Prize Exhibition – Davies Street Gallery – London
1995
Art Aid – Cornhill – London
Bibliography
2005 Pye, Harry – ‘Night On Earth’ essay exh. guide (illus)
1998 Craddock, S – essay: exh.cat: MA Degree Show, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (illus)
1996 Guha T – ‘Ride a Cock Horse’, review, Time Out, 04/09/1996-11/09/1996
1996 Hodge N – ‘Ride a Cock Horse’ review, Make, No.72 October – November 1996
Awards
2002/3 Chelsea College of Art and Design Research Fund
1997-1998 British Academy, Postgraduate Bursary
Lecturing
2000 – 2003 Visiting Tutor – Chelsea College of Art and Design – Foundation Painting
2000 – 2003 Visiting Tutor for “Dali” ,short course unit for the University of the Arts London (formerly The London Institute)
Summer 2000 – 2001 Tutor on Millenium Project 2000/2001
1999 – 2001 Visiting tutor, London Summer Art and Design Programme at Chelsea College of Art and Design.
