‘Materials, Messages and Meaning #14’ features Lydia Bell, Michael Geddis, Patricia Kelly, Ruth Osbourne and Ioana Petcu-Colan, five visual artists selected from our annual open call, each responding to the theme ‘experimental’.

Experimental – 1. based on untested ideas or techniques and not yet established or finalized. 2. involving a radically new and innovative style.

The group exhibition presents the work of these five artists, allowing its ‘experimental’ nature to emerge through their diverse approaches – in the materials they choose to work with, the messages and meaning they convey through those materials, and the processes they employ to make their work.

Michael Geddis re-sites and re-purpose scientific tools and processes using patterns from nature as inspiration. Patricia Kelly’s textile practice entails working with the landscape, stitching, natural dying, and folklore. Ruth Osborne similarly draws from the landscape using soil, chemistry, place and the elements as tools to create new textile outcomes. Lydia Bell’s work likewise uses the rural landscape as the starting point to tell stories of change, survival and impact on nature, history and communities. Finally, Ioana Petcu-Colan starts with a musical landscape to generate exploratory ways to see music and hear visual art.