The Strongest Conjuration
Preview: 22nd May 6pm-9pm
Exhibition: 23rd May until 21st June
Open: Mon - Sat 10:00am – 6.00pm
FREE ENTRY
Novas Arts presents an exhibition by Habda Rashid and Charlotte Jonerheim.
“ Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to; in the strongest conjuration”
Charles Dickens
Habda Rashid
Our home is a fundamental aspect of our lives. It carries a wealth of emotions, incidents and memories as the backdrop to our existence. At varying times it can hold both negative and positive; we can feel safe or afraid there.
Habda Rashid’s photographic work explores the intimate relationship that can develop with a common environment. Her images facilitate a further narrative by asking the viewer to look beyond the initial familiar observation.
The images are informed by the words and experiences of the home from a domestic violence survivors support group. Through meetings with the group Rashid came to understand the duality of the home. Many women have no security in their home and many perpetrators of violence in the home escape punishment because of the sanctity of this private domain..
Some survivors spoke of the bathroom as a safe place and the living room as a tense environment. The television cutting the silence as they wait for their partners to return home. Objects, times of the day, sounds, rooms etc carry a greater significance for these women.
There are no photographic portraits of these survivors because of safety concerns. The images of the home therefore become the portraits. The empty spaces represent an absence of their true selves when living with the threat of violence. It is important to acknowledge the positive experience of the support group and that women can survive and move on from experiencing domestic violence
At a time when our society seems to be preoccupied with material aspirations, this exhibition engages with the idea of displacing our identity and thoughts onto the objects that surround us. The aim of the work is to go beyond a one-dimensional idea of the home instead creating visceral and sensory observations of the space and its emotional significance.
Habda has received an Individual artist award from Arts Council for this new body of work.
Charlotte Jonerheim
Also exhibiting is the artist Charlotte Jonerheim. Jonerheim has exhibited worldwide and her work is held in a number of private collections. Her most recent show was a group show for Rollo Preview 08, Rollo Contemporary Art, London.
“An important aspect of my practice is the way I assemble my work. It almost becomes similar to the process of drawing; grid, pattern and structure play an important role for me in transforming (often) insignificant objects into an entity in their own right. I find there is a great sense of calmness in repetition. When it occurs in nature and architecture it eludes to an impression of security and a sense of familiarity.
My concerns also lie in the surface of my work. This can be manipulated by placing a small object in a specific order thus creating an over all different result. The patterns in my work form a surface, which is (often) very tactile. The work then takes on an additional dimension, a seduction.”
For more information contact: Alexandra Pryce on 020 7424 3060 or alexandra.pryce@novas.org
