‘Capturing Light’ explores our relationships with natural light and connects to The Foundry Gallery’s surrounding environment on Old Church Street in Chelsea. The project has been developed from Grady’s research into the window as an architectural device that not only filters light but also a framework that connects the outside world with the inside. Freed from the burden of representation, Grady’s artworks have been created through problem solving and reductionist techniques of her own invention. Her designs relate to the architecture in and around the site of her artworks. All the blueprints and decisions are then made before the installation process begins exploring variations of the design through study diagrams. Fiona’s exemplary planning and use of precision drawings are a crucial part of her practice, her internal logic echoes that of Sol Le Witt’s meticulous geometries. “When an artist uses a conceptual form of art it means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand…The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” [1]Alongside her interventions Grady is also well known for her printmaking, which also explores composition, colour and pattern but in a smaller more tangible way.

‘Capturing Light’ will appear in the form of two new site-responsive window installations. The first on the gallery’s large front window and the second on a large sash window at the rear. The installations are activated by the light pouring into the gallery casting evolving-coloured “heavy shadows against light shadows…the shadows in each room take on a tinge peculiarly their own.”  [1]These will be shown alongside a series of installations, framed screenprints, drawings and works on glass/perspex. Which will examine how the use of pattern can create movement within the window space.

The gallery has been transformed into an immersive exhibition space. A long table will run through the centre of the space where Grady will arrange a display of works on paper, diagrams, digital prints, reference books, sketchbooks and perspex models. This impressive display allows us to gain a deeper understanding into her working practice, like Sol LeWitt’s extensive writings, instructions and line drawings that underpin his thought process. Grady’s prints and drawings are often the starting point for how she develops ideas in a more permanent way whilst also creating her own visual library to reflect on.

Fiona Grady’s art practice recognises geometric abstract art as a language to understand the world around us. “Geometric lines (of her work) meet a tangent of utmost simplicity.”[1] The ever-changing artworks seek to encourage her audience to consider the ephemeral quality of light, the experience of viewing ‘Capturing Light’ varies dependently on the proximity to her work and the time of day/night. The exhibition will be a playful and vibrant exploration into what it means ‘to draw’, to look at the three-dimensional potential of drawings to move from paper to occupy a space and allow light to become an art medium.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] Grady, Fiona. “Shadowy Nuance & Colourful Movement” Interview by Jillian Knipe. Art Fictions (September 13th 2021): https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/art-fictions/shadowy-nuance-and-colourful-47pyzRKYB3C/

[2] Grady, Fiona. “Shadowy Nuance & Colourful Movement” Interview by Jillian Knipe. Art Fictions (September 13th 2021): https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/art-fictions/shadowy-nuance-and-colourful-47pyzRKYB3C/

[3]Artnet, ‘Sol LeWitt’, Artnet, 2021, www.artnet.com/artists/sol-lewitt/

[4] Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows, London, Vintage Classics, 2001, p29/30

[5] Artland, ‘Art Movement: Minimalism’, 2021, https://magazine.artland.com/minimalism/