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Play I> Pause II

Louise Marchal

Fri 11 Apr 2008 - Sat 17 May 2008

10am - 6pm

"“Play” is not just movement, it can be active or passive, active in making a tape roll, a CD spin, or engaging in interaction; passive on a biological level such as the play of colour on the retina or sound on the eardrum, or the mental play of meaning which can be both. Similarly “Pause” is not a full stop. “Pause” is temporary disengagement from play. It is the momentary glance out of the window when reading, the time spent making tea during the commercials; it is that visual judder back and forth when playback is suspended between frames."
Louise Marchal 2008

Working mainly on canvas, Marchal layers bold swerves and snatches of vibrant colour over carefully screen printed and constructed matrixes and networks that resemble sound waves, binary or computer code. At a distance these form paintings that are textured and free, calling to mind the of the colour play of artists from the Bauhaus school, but closer inspection reveals the intricate, ordered depiction of imagery borrowed from computer games, industriously reproduced like a favourite doodle in the back of a maths book. By combining this imagery Marchal depicts simultaneous states of order and disorder, the capacity of the mind to swing between studious concentration and gleeful distraction.

Marchal also adopts the Modernist interest in interdisciplinary practise in presenting collage, digital and 3-dimensional works that draw titles and themes from literary texts. These art forms play off one another figuratively in her paintings and literally in a collection of handmade books. These books are intimate and curious devices for the imagination, playfully visiting geometry, collage and absence upon the spaces usually reserved for ordered, linear text.

In Play I> Pause II Marchal considers how we reconcile our experience of the vibrant, frivolous, sensory assault of the modern world with a natural desire to slow time, capture moments and quietly observe .

Born in 1972 Louise Marchal is a British artist living in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. She graduated from The University of Sunderland in 2007, having previously studied English Literature at University of Glasgow. She is currently undertaking a second MA at Sunderland in Curatorial Practise. Her painting Kongwave was shortlisted for the Celeste Art Prize in 2007. Past exhibitions include Further Reading, an installation of books within the shelves of the Literary & Philosophical Society, Newcastle upon Tyne, Existenshul at York City Screen and Narrative Adaptation, at the Agora Gallery, New York.

For more information about the artists visit www.louisiem.com.