Remains features two works:
Remains [Brick Wall Rubble] 2024. Patchworked and painted cotton and
Remains [Broken Window] 2024. Patchworked and painted canvas
They form part of a series of textile works whose meanings appear to slip and slide. The Notice Board asks:
Are they figurative descriptions or abstract patterns?
Are they dumb soft things or subversive hard things?
Are they funny or not?
Are they representations of gentle ruination or of places purposely destroyed?
Whichever way, The Notice Board is interested in:
How current affairs across the globe affect them.
How this village context changes them.
How it might feel to live with or near broken windows.
How patchwork and patchworking has always been a political.
How abstraction and pattern can appear in the unlikeliest of places.
Craig says: I’m interested in how these works (panel and flag) hover in an in-between space, acting as figurative representations (a broken brick wall and a smashed window) while at the same time being patterned formal abstractions. Ideas of destruction or ruination are juxtaposed with decorative motifs and craft techniques from textiles. I often draw inspiration and reference artists such as Philip Guston and have become particularly interested in his use of recurring motifs such as the brick wall. By employing an image of a fragmented brick wall within the flag work, it asks us to consider borders or boundaries and the futility of containment. The panel of a smashed window forms part of my fascination with the architectural ruin and abandoned spaces, it raises questions about violence and intentional decay.
Craig Fisher is an artist, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader BA (Hons) Fine Art at University of Derby. He lives in Nottingham and is a studio holder at PRIMARY. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. In 2022, Fisher had solo exhibitions, FLAT SPACE, at Abingdon Studios Project Space Blackpool and a space in a space in a space at Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham. Recent group exhibitions include, An Elastic Continuum S1 Artspace, Sheffield (2023); A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary and inclusion in touring exhibition, Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021 (both 2021).