|
|
 |
.
| |
Unattached, by Rosalind Davies |
Art of the circus comes to Town
THE circus is very much in fashion at the moment. Not only is Britney Spears doing her best to boost its profile, bless her leather chaps, but it’s also the focus of the Roundhouse’s first-ever fine art exhibition.
The Chalk Farm venue was talked into hosting the show, From Light to Dust, by its curator Irina Stark after some circus-themed paintings inspired her and she then noticed the Roundhouse was hosting London’s only real-life circus, the award-winning NoFit State Circus.
She put the two together and – roll up, roll up, you’ve got the only circus in town with its own sideshow.
The exhibition’s central artist Rosalind Davis – whose paintings first inspired Ms Stark – was quick to point out her interest in the circus came long before Ms Spears began extolling their virtue.
“I like spaces that have double-edged meaning,” she says, explaining their appeal. “The circus can be really fun but there can also be a macabre side. It’s a dark and light place, the clowns are not always happy on the inside; after the tent comes down these performers move on. Their homes and communities can be quite transient.”
Her paintings – made with cotton, acrylic paint and embroidery and applique – also explore the transient theme of butterflies, drawing ties between the two.
A film by Shelly Love and a commissioned installation piece, a film of a butterfly farm outside London, by Michaela Nettell, will also be screened.
“Ros was the only contemporary artist I know working on the theme of the circus and I thought that was very original,” said Ms Stark, who approached the Roundhouse with a view to staging its first-ever art show last November.
“It is very exciting to show people who come to the Roundhouse how performing arts can combine with fine arts,” she says of the venue that until now has made its name through performance art.
“It’s all part of the same creative and imaginative world and shouldn’t be separated out; one completes the other.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
