Chloe Hawes & Gloria Ogunyinka, Doors of Perspective
18 - 27 September
Open: Thursday - Sunday 12pm - 6pm
OUTPOST presents ‘Dooors of Perspective’, an exhibition by Chloe Hawes and Gloria Ogunyinka. Hawes and Ogunyinka were both 2019 graduates from Norwich University of the Arts (Hawes graduating Fine Art and Ogunyinka from Fashion). As part of the OUTPOST graduate scheme they were both awarded a free shared studio for a year along with the opportunity to exhibit at Gildengate House. ‘Doors of Perspective’ represents the exciting shared culmination of their year long practices.
An email conversation between Chloe Hawes & Gloria Ogunyinka and Charlie Barkus.
Charlie Barkus: Both of you have discussed the importance of colour in your individual practice, how has that theme been explored for this show?
Gloria Ogunyinka: For my current work, the boys will be their own undoing, I explore colour in the form of my crochet pieces titled Tool. Each crochet piece is made of different yarns and colours to represent the individual aspects of every person, they then are stretched and held in place by wooden frames. The combination of bright colours juxtaposed with the more muted colours of the wood symbolise how each person is unique in a multitude of ways but the box society puts you in is always the same. I also feel this mirrors the room with Chloe's brightly coloured paintings with the concrete floor, creating a room filled with a cacophony of colour through different medium and texture.
Chloe Hawes: For me I wanted to explore the use of a variety of colours over my regular approach of choosing a limitation of two complementary colours. The design of the work has been derived from the structures of my own home during the lockdown and I wanted the personality of the piece to reflect who I spent this unexpected year with. The colours are vibrant and playful and despite the dark undertone 2020 has had, they perfectly represent the positive influence of the people I was with.
Both Gloria and myself knew colour would be important to the outcome of the show and can both relate to its different forms of expression and personality but I think by our different approaches it will show the audience exactly how vastly it can be used and the clear difference within our works by ways of medium.
CB: The title of this show is Doors of Perspective, could you go into detail about how the title reflects this exhibition?
CH: The title is the biggest link between Gloria's and my own practices. What's beautiful about it is that both of us see it differently.
For me my work has always been about encouraging a new perspective vision on the audience. A way for me to open the audience's mind to my way of seeing, as easy as you would open a door. Perspective can be physical as well as a thought and with my work it takes both into consideration. 'Doors of Perspective' is a very literal title to my pieces in the show, specifically the on-site painted installation spanning the wall.
GO: The title Doors of Perspective came from a combination of Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception and a theme of both of our work we deemed the most important, perspective. For me, the title of Doors of Perspective was about how Huxley wanted to access a greater degree of awareness through his use of mescaline, and with my work I wanted to access a greater understanding of the way in which society seems to work in this dysfunctional way, and more importantly "why" and whether it even works at all. To understand my work it is all about looking at the pieces through a perspective that may differ from what you would originally look at art with. I didn't want to simply create work that showed my point if view, but I wanted to invite the viewer to take their own journey around my work to have their own perspective show naturally.
CB: Space and surroundings seem to be an important aspect to the show, how have you worked together to explore this theme?
CH: We both came together to discuss our intentions for the show and our original ideas were very different to the final outcome. Rather than splitting the gallery half and half through the middle we wanted to create a space that was able to bring our works together and form its own space and feel. Originally my plan was to create an infinity room, creating an entirely new space within the gallery that would immerse the audience and make them feel like they had left the outside world completely within the space. When this idea changed due to complications, it was important for us to know that whatever our outcomes, the effect on the space would still need to be relevant to both our intentions and still complement each other's work through the curation and title.
GO: When working on the curation of the show, we explored how to use the space to amplify the theme of perspective. Chloe continued to explore her work by going larger with her paintings, and working with canvas which meant that I had the floor to work with. I worked with differing heights of my work to engage the audience with moving around the space as more of a fluid movement so they would walk around and be part of the work rather than feel they were forced to stay in one space to engage with the work.
CB: You're both the first graduate scheme holders at OUTPOST, has sharing a studio together influenced your individual practices?
GO: By working with someone who's medium is paint, most specifically how Chloe works in such a large scale, it taught me to explore space and size in a way I hadn't during my time at university. Whilst studying, we were always taught to go bigger and bigger with what we did and as much as I loved this, seeing the plethora of work Chloe produced, simply with a paint brush, paint and a canvas really made me explore a more reductionist approach to my work.
CH: At the beginning of this experience, I was very aware of how different our practices were through the visuals of it all. The more I got to speak with Gloria and understand her work and where her ideas stem from, it was interesting to find that we shared common ground on a lot of ideas. Her openness to exploring new forms and mediums outside of her comfort zone allowed me to step back from the work I was doing before graduating and reconsider my approach. As a result, I put less pressure on the designs of installation pieces and allow the composition to happen naturally once I begin painting and the end results work as a mixture of its theme and the space it stands in. I have also begun to explore the idea of using digital formats of working that can be used to print on fabrics after seeing Gloria's fashion pieces and this is something I plan to fully explore after this.
Overall, it has been great to work alongside another creative whose work is different from my own and yet still maintain a common ground within both of our styles respectively.
Photo credit: Charlie Barkus
