Jane Wilbraham: Ignoble Rot

Hales Gallery is pleased to present new works by British Artist, Jane Wilbraham.

Wilbraham's last show with the gallery (On the Road, 2000) featured her dexterously assembled sculpture and relief works made with printed, corrugated cardboard salvaged from fruit & veg boxes. Ignoble Rot continues her examination of humble materials in an urban context.

Ignoble Rot introduces natural materials and photographic information to the scenario and develops an analogy with the British Land Art movement of the 1970s. The group of works included act as a series of collected data in much the same way as, say, Richard Long may pick up sticks or boulders to chart a walk through the countryside and subsequently re-present them in a white cube context.

Presented as a series of large scale watercolours of dirt and discarded rubbish, interspersed with weeds, berries, nuts and leaves from specific areas, Wilbraham charts her movements around the world. The paintings covertly document Wilbraham's attempts to reconnect with natural phenomena through the foil of the debris of city life.

The two other elements included in the show are sculptural and have been meticulously assembled over the past two years.

The Relentless March of Bricks and Mortar, (after Cruickshank), 2005/2007 is a chain of diminishing sized links, each link made from a photograph taken by Wilbraham of a London stock brick wall. These bricks made from fired London clay are easily recognizable by urban dwellers and synonymous with the London basin. The bricks have been captured in a simple snap-shot from a pre-specified distance and then size graded to create each unit. In this sculpture, Wilbraham presents the earth mediated through a man made urban context, obliquely suggesting in the form of the chain, our unbreakable connection to it.

The Red Herring, 2006/7 Designed and made with the help of David Bickle of Hawkins/Brown architects, it takes the form of a reconstituted prop originally used by Wilbraham in a performance work that toured the Thames Gateway area in North Essex on the back of a lorry. Made with wooden pennies, the work in its sculptural state reflects Wilbraham's interest in vernacular architecture.

Wilbraham lives and works in London. Her work is included in collections in Britain and America and featured in Art U Need: My Part in the Public Revolution, by Bob and Roberta Smith, Black Dog Publishing ISBN 9781 906155 162.