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Sensing Nature
12 January – 14 April 2023
Sensing Nature is a mixture of silkscreen, mono and embossed prints by midlands-based artist Fae Kilburn. The exhibition is a visual documentation of Fae’s transition from partial-sight to blindness that will challenge other people’s understanding of sight-loss.
Fae’s landscapes document the blurring of boundaries and explore the shapes and patterns within the landscape. By using different methodologies including comparison colour charts and audio descriptions of the landscapes, Fae is able to create prints inspired by what she has seen, experienced and been told was in front of her.
The exhibition will have several pieces that can be touched, from the embossed Sensing Nature series to the beautiful silkscreen print triptych Transient Moments on Japanese paper and ‘Beyond the Curve’ that appear to float on the wall.
Fae was awarded Level’s first ‘Spotlight Award’ following a national call out to disabled artists. The award offered support from Level’s Artistic Associate Bella Milroy to help Fae develop her creative practice and learn more about the process of exhibiting work. The project has culminated in this solo exhibition, Sensing Nature, that gives a behind the scenes look at Fae’s methodology as well as showcasing her work.
The exhibition is designed to be accessible, with audio descriptions available for each piece in the gallery, titles in Braille and a QR code that links to the website so that text can be accessed with a screen reader.
Audio Descriptions
Uncertainty
Spring Surprises
Image Descriptions
Beyond the Curve (2021)
The installation ‘Beyond the Curve’ is five subtly silkscreen-printed landscapes of a woodland.
Each print is individually rolled up and displayed together to create one piece, appearing to float on the wall.
Each print reflects how my colour and perception of the landscape changes depending on the time of day, from soft greens to purple. The evening brings a monochromatic palette while the final roll is full of translucent colour’s.
Each shows a glimpse of the woodland, with the ground covered with crispy autumn leaves. The trees are bare, and their fine spiky branches reach out across the images.
The installation further distorts the prints and gives a materiality and softness to each of the exhibits, depicting the distortion I experience and reflecting the small section of the landscape I can see at any one time.
Transient Moments (2021)
Transient Moments is a triptych silkscreen print landscape on Japanese paper, with each print layered over each other.
The print in the foreground is in shades of purple, and behind it are two prints: one in shades of green and yellow and the other in shades of yellow and orange. These were the beautiful subtle colours I was seeing at the time.
This piece represents not only my sight but how important and calming the natural environment has always been to me as an individual with multiple conditions including epilepsy.
Selecting materials with translucent qualities enabled me to layer the images so that light filters through and moves with the air current, representing the transient nature of my sight.
Enchanted
Enchanted is a silkscreen print landscape on paper in a white wooden frame.
The image is created using lots of pale soft pinks, blues, and oranges — the colours I was seeing at the time. In the foreground are fine spiky branches crisscrossing each other, reaching up to the top of the image. The bushes and trees surround a lake that is just visible. This is a place I am drawn to and find captivating and otherworldly.
At first glance this piece appears to be a complete image, but on closer inspection, it has a moth-eaten appearance, and the fine detail is missing. The right and left side of the image are blurred where my peripheral vision has gone completely. The colours and missing information give this landscape a mystical feel.
Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a black and white silkscreen print landscape, with fine tree branches in the foreground covering a lake. Sections of the image are blurred, representing the loss of my vision in these areas, especially on the right-hand side of the picture. Its lack of colour represents how I see in the evening and conveys my sense of unease trying to navigate once visible and familiar landscapes. The change in light brings confusion and uncertainty at not knowing what is in front of me — it transforms the once-comforting sounds of nature to something slightly sinister and intimidating. That branch that tickled me earlier is not so friendly now!
Nightfall
Nightfall is an abstract monoprint on paper in a white frame. The bottom half of the image is dark blue, through the middle of the image is a band of pale blue, with rich blue above it. This print explores the vivid blues that I was seeing at the time and my experiences of navigating the woods, in the dark as the light faded and darkness surrounded me.
The last bit of light to fade is in the centre. Then I was left with nothing, relying only on my hearing and the guidance of my partner.
Then the sounds of the woods seemed to become louder: my feet crunching on the ground beneath and animals moving in the trees and bushes.
Fading Light
Fading Light is an abstract monoprint, with a blue background and a white pattern overlay. The pattern starts at the top right hand of the page and flows to the bottom left, with the appearance of crunchy ice that looks very textured.
This represents the blinding light of early evening and the patterns and disturbance in vision that I experience.
Spring Surprises
Spring Surprises is an abstract monoprint in shades of blue, green and cream, in a white frame.
The green and cream in the left centre of the image represent the new spring blossom on the trees. It was a wonderful surprise for me that I could see this new flash of colour, which I did not know was blossom. The colours in this piece blur, representing my distorted vision.
Beauty and Confusion
Beauty and Confusion is an abstract monoprint with lots of marks in different shades of blue and green in a white frame.
The right-hand side of the image presents darker tones of blue and green than the left. On the left side, shades of green verge towards white: they give a sense of things moving quickly and the feeling of confusion that I often feel in unfamiliar places.
Light plays a huge part in the quality of my vision, so consequently it fluctuates all of the time.
Sensing Nature (2022)
Sensing Nature is a tactile embossed print landscape. It is held within a white frame without glass. The print shows a tree on the left-hand side with fine branches stretching across the whole image.
The top half of the image is full of dense, rich leaves, and the bottom half has a scattering. Amongst this rich landscape you can hear the beautiful birdsong and rustling of leaves.
The tree is embossed and cream, and the background is gradients of brown.
I experience the landscape through touch and sound, so I created this piece to be touched echoing my own experience.
Tranquillity (2022)
Tranquillity is a tactile embossed print of a woodland, with tall fine trees on the right and young bushy samplings on the left. It is held within a white frame without glass. The print shows a dense woodland ground, full of tall grasses and fallen leaves.
The raised areas of the image are cream, and the rest of the image is in shades of brown. The print was created to be touched.
Just Beyond (2022)
Just Beyond is a small tactile embossed print landscape, in white, cream and shades of brown. The piece is held within a white frame without glass.
In the centre right of the image is a close up of a section of a tree trunk in the woods, with fine branches reaching out to the left of the print. The background is full of dense leaves. It feels as if the viewer is looking out from amongst the treetops. Please touch the work.
Transient (2021)
Transient is a silkscreen print and photograph held within a white frame. Originally a temporary installation, it is printed in shades of yellow on tissue paper.
The print is displayed in tree branches that stretch from the right-hand side of the photograph to the top left. The silkscreen print is in the middle, caught on a branch whilst the wind whips around it constantly changing its shape. There are rich yellow and green fields behind.
This was a way of connecting with nature during lockdown and exhibiting my work.
Fae Kilburn
Fae is a Midlands based artist and arts facilitator, specialising in printmaking. Much of her practice is about the relationship with materials and the tactile nature of the different processes. She actively encourages people to physically engage and connect with her work.
Creating disability awareness through art is an important part of Fae’s practice. She incorporates the narrative of other disabled people and makes her workshops and participatory events accessible and inclusive. Her aim is to raise awareness, challenge preconceived ideas, and highlight the stigma faced by many.
Fae has exhibited regularly in the UK and, thanks to grants from Arts Council England, worked internationally where she was artist in residence in Canada, leading to further residencies and exhibitions.
www.faekilburn.co.uk
Read Fae's blog about the Sensing Nature exhibition
In your exhibition, you employ the use of audio descriptions of your work in a really exciting and creative way, could you tell us a bit about how you use audio descriptions in general and how they function in this show in particular?
For this exhibition I wanted the audio descriptions not just to give visitors a
description of each piece of artwork, but be emotive, and echo the emotions
that I felt in the landscape by using sounds taken from the natural environment
the art works were inspired by. On some of the recordings I also incorporated
the sound of musical instruments to recreate what I felt.
You have talked about how the process of creating these artworks is layered and multifaceted, and even perhaps collaborative in how you have worked with your partner to audio describe some of the scenes of the natural environment depicted in your work. Could you talk a bit about what this process is like, and how it informs your work?
To create this body of work I revisited the same location with my partner and
creatively documented what I was seeing. As my sight deteriorated it became
difficult to understand what was creating the shapes and patterns before me,
so I would ask my partner what was creating the sudden appearance of cream
in the woods. He described the beautiful spring blossom on the trees, which enabled me to create ‘Spring Surprises’. We also used colour charts to document how differently we both perceived colour. My partners’; descriptions of the landscape and joint use of colour charts enabled me to understand what was in front of me and celebrate my unique perspective.
You use texture in your work in such a beautiful way, and you invite audiences to engage in your work via touch. Can you share more about how you work with texture?
For me, texture has always been an important part of my practice but since
the deterioration in my sight I have developed a deeper appreciation of the
importance of touch. I use my sense of touch to navigate the world and
understand my surroundings. I wanted viewers to be able to explore my art
and depiction of the landscape in the same way I explore it through touch. The embossed prints are in frames but not behind glass so viewers can physically
engage with the work.
You’ve talked to me about how it’s important to you to disrupt the standardised way of experiencing art in galleries where artworks are not allowed to be touched and prints are expected to be framed. Your work not only invites audiences to touch but also moves and shifts in response to changes in the environment (prints on loose paper that move when doors open or people move past etc.). Can you expand upon why displaying art in such a dynamic way is important to the experience of your work?
I feel that work behind a frame as beautiful as it looks can sometimes be another barrier. I want to break away from the traditional ways of displaying prints and combine sculpture and print creating installations that people can physically engage with. My installation ‘Transient Moments’ is a Triptych on Japanese paper, and moves with the air current in the room and represents the transient nature of my sight. ‘Beyond the Curve’ is an installation of five silkscreen prints in columns that appear to float on the wall, representing the distortion in my vision. I feel displaying work like this not only links to my sight loss but encourages the audience to get closer to the work.
There are so many of the works in your show that are a favourite of mine, do you have a particular favourite and why?
I find this a difficult question to answer, each piece represents a different moment in my sight loss journey. I love the intensity of the colours in ‘Nightfall’, this piece takes me back to walking in the woods at night with my partner and watching my sight disappear before me. ‘Uncertainty’ is captivating and always catches my eye but I love the installations ‘Beyond the Curve’ and ‘Transient Moments’. There is a subtlety to them that captures that moment of sight loss so well, and showcases how beautiful my world is.
This show captures a particular moment in your life in such a powerful way through the exploration of your experience of the natural environment. Will these themes continue to be explored in future work?
Do you have a sense of where your work will move next? I have a video installation that goes with this body of work, it distorts the landscape and the viewers experience, but I have not had the opportunity to exhibit it yet. I would like to develop my prints, increase the scale and print on different materials. My eyesight is ever changing and is a constant source of inspiration for my work. I can see this body of work evolving.
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