Tall Tales culminating exhibition took place within the beautiful Glasgow Women’s Library. With artwork from all 17 of our artists, as well as artwork created by the Glasgow Women’s Library members themselves (for the Call for Cloth project), Tall Tales filled every nook and cranny of the venue! The full exhibition was on display between 21 October – 22 December 2016.
Tall Tales travelled from its London venues’ on to Touchstones Rochdale, in the North West and exhibited across gallery 2, 3 and 4 between 1 July – 2 September 2016 , showcasing all 17 artists’ work.
Tall Tales showcased work at the Swiss Cottage Gallery and Library, London from 21 March – 29 May 2016 and featured work by Alinah Azadeh, Sharon Campbell, Lauren Sagar and Nina Yuen.
Tall Tales showcased work at the Tavistock Clinic from 21 March – 8 May 2016 and featured work by Margarete-Berger Hammerschlag, Jacqueline Butler, Lila De Magalhaes, Alison Erika Forde & Mirjam Somers
Tall Tales showcased work at the Freud Museum, London from 15 April – 29 May 2016 and featured work by Ruth Barker, Nicky Bird, Beth Collar,Lila De Magalhaes, Alison Erika Forde, Sarah Forrest, Oona Grimes and Laure Prouvost
Akerman Daly is Jeremy Akerman and Eileen Daly. Since 2004 they have commissioned, edited and published artists’ writing in print, online and through live events.
AD online hosts artist residencies, new projects and a library of art and writing. In recent years they have pioneered ways to distribute a new generation of artists’ writing by sending it out freely to their subscription mailing list.
They teach a writing and editing course and offer bespoke mentoring to artists. AD works at the forefront of artists’ writing and aims to broaden the range and opportunities for artists working in this field.
For Tall Tales, Akerman Daly have supported artist Ruth Barker to produce and publish new writing. AD online is also hosting artists Alinah Azadeh and Oona Grimes in their library on art and writing.
This Thing That We Do, 2016, is a reworking and recording of writing for Ruth Barker’s Tall Tales commission The Foot Exerts a Pressure On The Surface Of The Glass, 2016. The audio is performed by Ann Green. This Thing That We Do has been produced and commissioned by wewioraprojects and Akerman Daly.
Listen to This Thing That We Do here
And for more information about Akerman Daly please click here
Rochdale Central Library is on the ground fl
oor of Number One Riverside. The multi use public building is in Rochdale town centre and is also the home to the annual Rochdale festival of literature and Ideas.
Rochdale Central Library will be home to the Chandelier of Lost Earrings as well as base for the new ‘A Call for Cloth’ project by Tall Tales artist Lauren Sagar.
The Chandelier of Lost Earrings will be on showcase at the Library from 17 June – 3 September 2016
For more information about Rochdale Central Library, including opening times and directions please click here
Touchstones Rochdale is the Borough’s Arts and Heritage Centre. The Art Gallery consists of four gallery spaces: one for the Borough’s impressive collections, two for the best in visiting contemporary art, craft and design and a dedicated community gallery.
Tall Tales will be showcasing in Gallery 3 & 4 of Touchstones, from 2 July – 3 September (preview 1 July) 2016
For more information about Touchstones, including information on its opening times and directions please click here
Rachel Goodyear’s intricately rendered works explore the macabre undertones of human existence. Referencing nightmares, the human psyche and traditional folklore, her works capture unusual and psychotic scenarios.
Fluctuating between the real and the imagined, her delicate creations probe the precarious line between what is possible and what is not.
Following her solo presentation at The Drawing Room New York in 2015, for Tall Tales Rachel Goodyear will show works across a range of media, including works on paper, animation and sculpture.
For more information about the artist please click here
Alinah Azadeh is a UK based artist trained in painting, video and digital media. Since her MA in Media Arts Practice at Westminster University (2001), her work has spanned visual, performance, textile and digital media.
Her work actively references her Iranian heritage. Her sculptural works are rooted in the materials and stories of her own experience as the daughter of an Iranian mother who migrated to the UK in the 60’s and the indirect but powerful impact the 1979 Islamic Revolution had on domestic life and her own transcultural identity. The growth of her household through migrant family members, the mingling of tongues, cuisines and political differences all intersected at the table as she tried and often failed to make sense of this new hybrid territory. The strong connection to her mother’s culture came into sharp relief when she died suddenly in the Asian Tsunami 2004, just after attending the labour and birth of Alinah’s first daughter – her mother’s first granddaughter. Works such as Mother Tongue, (2009), selected for Tall Tales, are both connected to this narrative and synonymous with more universal ideas of sustenance, refuge and safety. As with Mother Tongue Azadeh’s installations, such as The Gifts (2010) and her smaller sculptures, use once-valued personal objects bound in textile and connected with texts to create a poetic discourse on identity, loss and personal relationship.
For the Tall Tales Alinah will showcase a selection of works which reflect her current sculptural practice and long used ritual of textile wrapping of ‘deceased’ objects, both to separate from and honour the past. In certain cultures, the wrapping of the objects of the dead is used as a way of minimising their ‘power’ over the living, of making them safe and silent. Sometimes, by silencing objects in this way, Alinah has made statements around political repression, such as with The Instrument That Cannot be Played (2012) made in response to the 2009 Green uprising in Iran and also selected for the Tall Tales tour.
Alinah Azadeh has always been influenced by the Sufi poetry and thought – another gift from her mother – and this transitioned into starting her own writing in 2004, inspired by her personal stories, dreams and reflections on grief, longing and the process of making her own work and working with others. Tall Tales finally gives her the opportunity to put both these smaller quieter, works and the writing that inspired – or was inspired by them – into the same public touring context.
Whether small sculpture or a dialogue with a stranger, Azadeh’s works are rooted in the living and disclosure of personal experiences which act as a bridge into the work for others to take. Azadeh’s practice generates dialogue, reflection and narrative around the nature of loss, longing and our social identities.
As part of the 2016 programme Tall Tales will be working with artist writing commissioner and developer Akerman Daly. Alinah Azadeh will be working with Akerman Daly taking up an library shelf on art and writing with AD online. See www.akermandaly.com
talltalestouring.com 