Helen Hayward and Jacqui Hallum are both part of group show Yellow Archangel at Oceans Apart from 4

YELLOW ARCHANGEL: An Exhibition of Rhizomic Painting

Oceans Apart, OA Studios, Salford

4 September - 2 October 2020

Exhibiting Artists: Shane Bradford, Paul Bramley, John Bunker, Liz Elton, Jack Ginno, Laurence Grave, Jacqui Hallum, Helen Hayward, Clare Holdstock, Allyson Keehan, Jo McGonigal, Adrian Wald, Sarah Kate Wilson

In Bluebells in senescence in ancient hedgerows You will notice hooded golden hoards of Yellow Archangel, Familiar like bad man’s posies Spreading like wildfire like billy–oh. It is below ground their true efficacy lies Stems tunnelling horizontally Unabated, Firing out exploratory roots at haphazard intervals, In unrelenting permeation Ever more, advancing more.

In painting in expanded painting, We shall speak of this rhizome plant And concern ourselves with the significance of its lateral stem system For we are concerned with permeations and syntheses, With cross pollinations and lack of restrictions. We shall not concern ourselves with Tap Root Systems Burrowing Down.

So let us go then you and I And explore new territories, Let us see the extent to which painting has spread– Pausing at the perpetual intersections of the streets, Let us observe its unions, networks and guises And so indulged might we become that the lands from whence we came will feel so Very far away at times.

Oceans Apart - OA Studios - 24-26 King Street - Salford – M3 7DG

Let us experience the infinite possibilities of what painting is (Ah, its impurities! Its loss of substance!) Like a wayfarer of no fixed destination Perpetually shifting territories

Seeing the lands into which painting has been permitted; And some might say “oh things were so much better here before all this, We knew where we were!” But we shall not bother with them For the shifting interests us.

Indulging ourselves in conjecture As to the whys and wherefores of the spread, The hybridizing and homogenizing– We must understand that what we have considered permanent We have misconstrued; Painting with all its constituent parts has never had an independent existence Rather it has a co-dependent relationship with so many non-painting elements, Of soil of rain and cloud and sun. Interdependent with everything else in its aliveness Painting must proceed– If we try to find the essence of painting We Shall Surely Not.

- Paul Bramley, exhibiting artist and curator of Yellow Archangel

Yellow Archangel is open by appointment. Please email: oceansapartgallery@gmail.com There will be a socially distanced Finissage on Friday 25th September, 6-8pm

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