Curated by Elena Schmitz

Fri 15 Aug — Sun 28 Sept
Gwe 15 Awst — Sul 28 Medi

Simon Woolham attempts to unearth unpredictable and fragile processes of memory by examining occupied spaces and the narratives that unfold in them. His drawings of school playing fields or junk-filled underpasses contain text with the tone of dialogue. Through these glimpses of speech the dilapidated environments come to life in a skint version of enchantment; a tree stump or a broken fence are filled with the meanings of the events that go on around them.

Woolham has recently made a series of models, films and animations that focus on recurring motifs that often feature in the work: ditches, unofficial dumps and breached security fences. The films bring to life a series of landscapes that are digitally manipulated, coloured and made to move.

Woolham’s work is unassuming, quite often made from simple materials and with seemingly modest aspirations. Nonetheless, the works are charged with emotion; they are irreducibly, irrevocably unsettling. The sites depicted in the work are scenes of humiliation as well as innocent play, of rejection and failure as well as fantasy and adventure. They are as sweet as other people’s children and as deadly as your own worst memories. Woolham will create new sitespecific interventions at Chapter which will be shown alongside existing works.

Since graduating from Chelsea College of Art with an MA in 2000, Woolham has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. Solo shows have included ‘Dark Corner’, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans, 2008; ‘The Bridge was a good place to throw stuff off’, Leicester Art Gallery Offsite, 2007; ‘Shreds of Evidence’, Museum of Garden History, London, 2007; ‘New Films’, Wexford Arts Centre, Ireland and ‘Our Place’, BLOC Projects, Sheffield, 2007. Group shows have included ‘Tatton Park Biennial 2008’, Tatton Park, Knutsford, nr Manchester, 2008; ‘Eastern Open 2008’, Kings Lynn Arts Centre, 2008; ‘Wysing Arts’, Bourne, nr Cambridge, 2008; ‘ISOBAR’ Fieldgate Gallery, London, 2007; ‘Bolwick 4’, Bolwick Hall, nr Norwich, 2007; ‘Merdre!’ Pendu Gallery, New York, 2007; ‘Art Video’, Västerås, Sweden, 2007; ‘Too Much Freedom!’, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2006; ‘One Love - The Football Art Prize’, The Lowry, Manchester, 2006; ‘EXPO Sonic Arts’, Cornerhouse and Victoria Baths, Manchester, 2006; ‘Video Group Show’, The Nunnery, London, 2006 and ‘Paper Cuts’, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, 2006/07.

Image: Simon Woolham, The Keep, 2006. Biro on paper, courtesy the artist.

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