Ellen Wilkinson
12 March - 5 April
3 April, 6pm - Closing Event
3 April, 6pm - Closing Event
From 12th March the windows of Stapleton Road Tavern will be inhabited by a duo whose motivations are uncertain.
Entitled eidolon, (meaning an ideal of a person or thing, or an apparition or spectre) these absurd creatures occupy a window each, gazing in opposite directions, seemingly isolated from one another despite appearing to be a pair. Their shrouded forms are recognisable yet there is something mysterious and even sinister about them, the exposure of only their eyes evoking potentially uncomfortable socio-political connotations.
The cheap glamour of the surface of these images and the curtains that they are framed by, create particular associations and contradictions in the context of a boarded-up, disused pub, of the building’s past life and the complexities of urban regeneration and gentrification.
As the eidolons stare out through the glass of the tavern windows it is unclear what their status is: whether they are sentinels, guarding the building like sphinxes a tomb, whether they are defensive or trying to tempt us in. The glass may trap or preserve, or protect us from them; they could be passive objects of our gaze or perhaps we are the ones being surveyed.
Join us on Tuesday 3 April at 6pm for an informal talk with Ellen about the project.
Entitled eidolon, (meaning an ideal of a person or thing, or an apparition or spectre) these absurd creatures occupy a window each, gazing in opposite directions, seemingly isolated from one another despite appearing to be a pair. Their shrouded forms are recognisable yet there is something mysterious and even sinister about them, the exposure of only their eyes evoking potentially uncomfortable socio-political connotations.
The cheap glamour of the surface of these images and the curtains that they are framed by, create particular associations and contradictions in the context of a boarded-up, disused pub, of the building’s past life and the complexities of urban regeneration and gentrification.
As the eidolons stare out through the glass of the tavern windows it is unclear what their status is: whether they are sentinels, guarding the building like sphinxes a tomb, whether they are defensive or trying to tempt us in. The glass may trap or preserve, or protect us from them; they could be passive objects of our gaze or perhaps we are the ones being surveyed.
Join us on Tuesday 3 April at 6pm for an informal talk with Ellen about the project.
Ellen Wilkinson (b. 1983, UK) lives and works in Bristol. Exhibitions have included Videoformes Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France (2012), Jour de Fete, Loop Video Festival, Barcelona, Spain (2011), Irresistible Forces, The Great North Museum Hancock, Newcastle (2010), Atelier, PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany (2009), What would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall, Beachcroft Space, Bristol (2009), Somewhere Here, Plan 9, Bristol (2008), All over (bar the shouting), Rhys And Hannah Present, Bristol (2008).
Visit Ellen's website here: www.ellenwilkinson.co.uk
