Where was I?

Afsoon, Elena Dimitrova, Jenni Hodgson , Neda Dana-Haeri, Virginia Waterhouse

What happens when five artists with different cultural backgrounds but a common interest in exploring a sense of identity and place through painting and collage come together? All these artists find inspiration in places from both their past and present and make work that is a psychological exploration or recollection of experience. Their work covers an interesting range of interpretations of abstraction, often created through a process of chance and experimentation.

Afsoon combines found images with drawings, linocuts, etching and collage to create playful and witty comments on the cultural interplay between east and west, while Neda’s layers of colours and textures reflect and refract the mythological, philosophical, and emotional worlds of Sufi poets and philosophers. Jenni references psycho-geographical images to evoke recollections and sensations experienced in various environments, particularly her native South Africa. Elena uses a variety of media to re-examine places and periods in her life, including her Bulgarian childhood, blending them with an element of fantasy to create intriguing and touching interiors. Virginia’s colourful, semi-abstracted paintings evoke imaginary or remembered landscapes, dramatic architectural structures and shadowy interiors.