Ruby Kester and Alexandra Holmes invite you to experience the works they have made in recent years.
Their mixing of traditional craft and modern aesthetics brings a new touch to much-explored themes such as religion, gender roles, spirituality and archetypal characters.
Using bold and contrasting colours they create a bright collection of exciting works that entice the viewer to think differently about themselves, question society values, and consider the non-human, through playful making processes that result in lively outcomes. Their contrasting interests complement each other by drawing attention to different ways of making.
Alexandra’s focus on glass and craft skills learned through a variety of residencies, including one in Romania, have broadened her practice and opened up new creative avenues. Inspired by Romanian traditional methods and religious views, Alex also incorporates modern themes running throughout. She takes the archetypal image of the female from iconography and alters the image slightly to comment on female gender roles.
Ruby’s work is built on intensive research into the anthropology of religion, philosophy and ways of existing in the natural world. She is interested in the divine, and responds to her research in whichever way best channels her ideas, including writing, drawings, prints, masks, and photography. Currently, she is exploring how to bring the written word into her art in order to place both her poetry and her visual pieces side by side, putting parallel thought tracks in conjunction with each other, thereby inviting new interpretations.
This is their first exhibition together since 2017 and both are excited to see the ways that their work compliments each other and to share with the public how their practices have evolved since graduating.
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