MILL24: Curator/Artist Profile: Lois Macdonald and Helen Collett

Name/Pseudonym:

Lois Macdonald and Helen Collett

Permanent Working Location:

Manchester

General Working Practice:

"Lois Macdonald and Helen Collett become one"

Thursday 28th October 2009

Collett and Macdonald have been working together as artists and curators for just over a year. Their partnership formed in December 2008 when they took over curating the Link Gallery. Both artists were involved in personal projects regarding the portrayal and disruption of physical/conscious environments and so led to their first collaboration in February 2009 as a detailed reworking of the interior space of the gallery. They still work together on this ongoing project, Back and Forth, as a changing installation rebuilt to encompass its environment. Since then, they have worked on a large-scale solo exhibition in an unused archway, as part of the Free For Arts Festival in October 2009, resulting in their first performative video work based on the systematic reflection of their working relationship; a process which now dominates their working practice. The Free For Arts Festival 2009 was also one of their first external curatorial experiences, being a weeklong series of events and exhibitions that they created and directed. Artistically, throughout 2010 their videos and installations have been exhibited in various group exhibitions at NOISElab, the Dance House and beyond. Currently, they are undertaking an internship at Islington Mill culminating in their self-curated series of 24-hour exhibitions, Mill24, scheduled to take place in April and May 2010. Their future lies in further joint exhibiting and curating; with their work scheduled to be on show monthly at the Green Room as well as at an upcoming exhibition at the Departure Gallery, London, in addition to once again organising the Free For Arts Festival.

Mill24 Exhibition:

“the aggressive yet playful quality that subconsciously directs their work as an all-female artist couple”

Collett and Macdonald continue their working relationship as an artist couple in the latest and final installment of their 3-part installation series, Back and Forth. First exhibited in the Link Gallery and then as part of the Manchester Art Crawl, they now want to embrace their performative style in creating their concluding chapter for just one-hour as part of Mill24. Their work has developed in succession from part i, space, to part ii, sound, and now to part iii, performance. Performing Back and Forth part iiiwill act as a full stop to their working past, and form a creative platform for them to move forward from as live performers within a sculptural environment. They will move in mirrored ritual around the white-cube gallery space, now transformed into an all-new environment by its submergence in calico fabric; their strange, dance-like performance reflecting the overlapping confines and communication that make up their working relationship. Choosing to exhibit their piece at a time when the exhibition will be most quiet, the sensory deadening of sound that their abundant use of calico fabric creates, will be enhanced more than ever before. The audience’s perception of the artists and their environment will become one.