100 Drawings / A Confessional

Tannery Projects 01/07/17 – 23/07/17

This is an ongoing collaborative project between Nell Sully and Sylvie Toutain. Through a quantitative process we are exploring the flexibility and power of the drawn surface to voraciously express and confess some of the issues facing women in middle age and the importance of understanding how our memories are retained and how they influence our behaviours. Through this abundant, challenging and deep interrogation the project aims to create an aggregation of admissions and disclosures, a haptic process that is reprogramming their own DNA as they progress. This exhibition is 100 of a planned 300 drawings in the future.

The confessions happen as we talk about our lives concerning varying regrets, responsibilities and fears about our relationships, our art practice, our physical presence or lack thereof and the current issues facing us in the world we inhabit today. The way that both of us are responding to the ideas of the confession is interesting. Sylvie hides her confessions behind screens, cautious to lay down categorically obvious or identifiable references. Nell, conversely is attempting to express within figuration the complexities of her learned life using honesty and absurdity. Here lies the dynamic between the two sets of drawings which are to all intents and purposes a trusting conversation between two friends.

The exhibition at The Tannery Project space is on from 1st through to 23rd July. Access is via The Drawing Room and the PV is on the eve of Friday 30th June 6.30pm-8.30pm.

The space will be an installation of 50 drawings, all 30 x 30 cms, facing each other with a patchwork of carpet on the floor and a scent of ‘nans handbag’ – the idea here being to see if the effect of the carpet and scent adds