Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making

Vessel, York St John University
Exhibition open: 
8th – 15th December 2023, 10 – 5. 
8th January – 21st March 2024, 10 – 5.

Symposium: 21st March 2024.

Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making asserts the contemporary relevance of abstract sculpture made by women and trans artists. Initiated through practice which prioritises togetherness and dialogue, the innovative processes evidenced throughout the exhibition across material, form, mass, space, scale and colour are distinct in their approaches which deny the labelling of sculpture as a historically masculine art form.

Woven, bent, sliced, interlocked, balanced, standing, climbing, stacked and sprawling, the artworks exhibited grasp and hold the gallery through a shared visual language. A visual language that applies industrial, domestic, constructed and found material to assert their presence – whether slippery or demanding – to take up space.

This exhibition, a collaboration between TSM and Vessel gallery at Yorks St John University positions a distinctly community-driven and collaborative practice. In this refusal of historical practices which have denied women artists space, the positioning of community building is integral to the ongoing feminist repositioning of abstract sculpture. Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making supports a national and intergenerational dialogue of abstract sculptors working across the UK today, and holds space for ongoing discussion.

Gillian Brent
Katrina Cowling
Charlotte Cullen
Alexandra Harley
Hannah Honeywill
Sheila Vollmer

Curated by Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) and Charlotte Cullen