Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All
An exhibition of artworks by Pippa El-Kadhi Brown, curated by Aya Koudounaris & Louis Chapple
on display at the Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, 9th November 2020 - 28th March 2021
Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All explores the home as a conscious space that exists both physically and psychologically. The exhibited works do not reflect any one particular place, but instead belong to a kaleidoscope of impressions; derived from memory, imagination and perhaps most importantly, sensation.
Encapsulating pure lived experience, the concept of home embodies an authentic sense of self. Combining the notion of where, who and when, home is where we as individuals, feel an invaluable sense of belonging. It is relational, gaining its significance only through the human projection of self and reflections of ontological experience. It is only a home to those who feel at home within it.
Whilst the home can occur physically as a place, its emotional presence exists in the senses. Memories linger and live as sensory experiences. Smells, tastes and emotions act as psychological souvenirs. Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All explores this sentimental and transformative idea of home, which brings comfort regardless of time and place. The mind will return to native memories and depend on the senses to embody nostalgic comforts of belonging.
The domestic home is a private sanctuary, a physical space designed to serve primitive human needs. It is where we eat, sleep, defecate and reproduce. It is where we are most human, and paradoxically, most creature. In the solaces of home, one shows their most authentic nature. However, whilst the home can be an extension of one’s self, it is also a tangible insight into one’s desired sense of self. Living spaces are reflections of inner worlds, but they are also masks, disguises, fashioned facades, where perceptions can be manipulated, ‘objets’ can be placed and environments are formed to model how we (don’t) want to be perceived.
Encapsulating pure lived experience, the concept of home embodies an authentic sense of self. Combining the notion of where, who and when, home is where we as individuals, feel an invaluable sense of belonging. It is relational, gaining its significance only through the human projection of self and reflections of ontological experience. It is only a home to those who feel at home within it.
Whilst the home can occur physically as a place, its emotional presence exists in the senses. Memories linger and live as sensory experiences. Smells, tastes and emotions act as psychological souvenirs. Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All explores this sentimental and transformative idea of home, which brings comfort regardless of time and place. The mind will return to native memories and depend on the senses to embody nostalgic comforts of belonging.
The domestic home is a private sanctuary, a physical space designed to serve primitive human needs. It is where we eat, sleep, defecate and reproduce. It is where we are most human, and paradoxically, most creature. In the solaces of home, one shows their most authentic nature. However, whilst the home can be an extension of one’s self, it is also a tangible insight into one’s desired sense of self. Living spaces are reflections of inner worlds, but they are also masks, disguises, fashioned facades, where perceptions can be manipulated, ‘objets’ can be placed and environments are formed to model how we (don’t) want to be perceived.
Takeaway?
238 x 209 cm
Oil on canvas
238 x 209 cm
Oil on canvas
The Smart Cat Doesn't Let on That She Is
148 x 148 cm Acrylic on canvas |
The Teacup
148 x 148 cm Acrylic on canvas |
Yucca
239 x 209 cm Oil on canvas 
Mind Sports
40 x 30 cm Oil and acrylic on canvas "I take inspiration from the home as an intimate environment and how we interact with this space. I use this as a way to explore the essence of the human character. Essentially is this organic sense of being alive which I try to grasp in my painting”. 
Floater
64.5 x 89.5 cm Oil and acrylic on canvas 
April; A Study
30 x 20 cm (32 x 22 cm framed) Oil and acrylic on paper 
Dreaming; Clouds, Sheep, Sky
29.5 x 20 cm (32 x 22 cm framed) Oil on paper 
Chop and Shop Medley I
29.5 x 20 cm (29 x 26 cm framed) edition 2 out of 10, digital collage on photographic paper |
In Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All the exhibition space itself is reminiscent of the paintings; scattered with domestic relics, house plants and ‘objets’. Once stepping inside the exhibition, the viewer is made to feel that they are entering the works that surrounds them; the figures in the paintings become reflections of current experience, reality is challenged, merged and separated in tandem. Driven by the shifting perspective, the surrounding space challenges the concept of interior versus exterior, the physical and the psychological and lived experience of human consciousness.
There is an interesting dialogue between the works, as each piece speaks to the next. During installation, the exhibition walls were physically moved and relocated to add to the domestic sensation of being surrounded, placing the viewers within. This relates to the title Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All, which depicts the home as a physical space as well as a limitless entity that exists in the conscious. 
I Wonder, I Wander
35.5 x 28 cm Oil and acrylic on canvas 
Rotten Tomatoes
178 x 209 cm Oil on canvas 
Ecstasy of Gold (Final Duel)
148 x 148 cm Acrylic on canvas 
Come Dusk, Selene Shows Her Many Faces
50 x 60 cm Oil on canvas 
Chop and Shop Medley II, A Bathtub Scene
29.5 x 20 cm (29 x 26 cm framed) edition 2 out of 10, digital collage on photographic paper 
A Place To Sit
29.5 x 20 cm (32 x 22 cm framed) Oil and acrylic on paper |
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Pippa El-Kadhi Brown is a London based artist who works primarily in oil paint. Her exploration of human psychology is observed through our relationship with domestic environments. Through her paintings she uses gesture and materiality to explore how we interact with space, both physically and emotionally. Challenging the notion of ‘our natural habitat’, the domestic home is perceived as a conscious space, which as human beings we have adapted to both merge with and coexist beside.
Pippa is currently working towards an MA in Painting at The Royal College of Art, for which she has been awarded the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award. Pippa holds a BA in Fine Art Painting from The University of Brighton, School of Art. Since graduating in 2018, she has taken part in residencies and exhibited both nationally and internationally.
In 2019 she spent three months living and working in China though the Organhaus Studio Residency and exhibited in Cat’s Mother; Her, She, Organhaus, Chongqing, China (2019). She also travelled to Latvia to exhibit in The Taste of Life, Art Pegazs, Riga, Latvia (2019), where she was awarded the Taste of Life award and accepted an artist residency in Liepaja, Latvia. In 2018 she was awarded the Creekside Graduate Studio Award and received a three-month Residency at Creekside Projects. Here she showcased her first solo exhibition, House Plants, Creekside Projects, London (2018).
Pippa’s art features in private collections in the UK, China, Hungary, Monaco, Denmark and Latvia, including the RZ Collection. Other notable exhibitions include The London Ultra, OXO Tower Wharf, London (2019) and Meet and See, Wushan Art Centre, Chongqing, China (2020) and A World Without End, No Barking Art, Virtual Exhibition (2020).
Pippa is currently working towards an MA in Painting at The Royal College of Art, for which she has been awarded the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award. Pippa holds a BA in Fine Art Painting from The University of Brighton, School of Art. Since graduating in 2018, she has taken part in residencies and exhibited both nationally and internationally.
In 2019 she spent three months living and working in China though the Organhaus Studio Residency and exhibited in Cat’s Mother; Her, She, Organhaus, Chongqing, China (2019). She also travelled to Latvia to exhibit in The Taste of Life, Art Pegazs, Riga, Latvia (2019), where she was awarded the Taste of Life award and accepted an artist residency in Liepaja, Latvia. In 2018 she was awarded the Creekside Graduate Studio Award and received a three-month Residency at Creekside Projects. Here she showcased her first solo exhibition, House Plants, Creekside Projects, London (2018).
Pippa’s art features in private collections in the UK, China, Hungary, Monaco, Denmark and Latvia, including the RZ Collection. Other notable exhibitions include The London Ultra, OXO Tower Wharf, London (2019) and Meet and See, Wushan Art Centre, Chongqing, China (2020) and A World Without End, No Barking Art, Virtual Exhibition (2020).
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Combining her art history background with art business and interest in the contemporary art market, Aya Koudounaris has been working with Zimbabwean artists for the last decade. With a focus on representing Zimbabwean artists’ work, and being passionate about their practice and intricate meanings behind their works, she has organised pop up exhibitions internationally to widen the audience and share this passion with others.
Aya’s own experiences include working with galleries and institutions in London, Rome, Geneva and Harare, while recently graduating from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art with a master’s in Art Business. After working for in Between Art Film in Rome, where she assisted the press communication for Looking For Oum Kulthum, presented at the 74th Venice Film Festival, Aya decided to move to London and work at Almine Rech gallery.
More recently, Aya has become Gallery Delta’s international agent, showcasing Zimbabwean artists’ works at the latest edition of 1-54, London. She is also a co-founder of artHarare, an online platform bridging cultural arts in Zimbabwe that will be launching in December, 2020.
Aya’s own experiences include working with galleries and institutions in London, Rome, Geneva and Harare, while recently graduating from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art with a master’s in Art Business. After working for in Between Art Film in Rome, where she assisted the press communication for Looking For Oum Kulthum, presented at the 74th Venice Film Festival, Aya decided to move to London and work at Almine Rech gallery.
More recently, Aya has become Gallery Delta’s international agent, showcasing Zimbabwean artists’ works at the latest edition of 1-54, London. She is also a co-founder of artHarare, an online platform bridging cultural arts in Zimbabwe that will be launching in December, 2020.
Louis Chapple is a freelance curator and advisor from London, and founder of the online gallery Studio Chapple. Having completed a BA in History of Art at Goldsmiths College, Louis has worked at renowned London art institutions such as Alison Jacques Gallery, Frieze and The Other Art Fair. In the summer of 2019, he moved to Venice to complete a placement at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Here, he worked on several underground projects for the 58th Venice Biennale, including the Picnic Pavilion at Casa Punta Croce and Emma Akmakdjian’s performance piece ‘(Re)tracing Routes’.
As well as working independently with London dealers such as Nick Holmes, Louis has conducted work as an advisor at several international events, including the 2019 edition of Art X Lagos and this year’s edition of 1-54 Marrakech.
In 2019, Louis founded the online gallery Studio Chapple. Working exclusively with emerging graduate artists based in the UK, Studio Chapple seeks to dismantle an ever-growing exclusivity associated with the art world by fostering close relationships between artists and collectors, and acts as a stepping stone into the commercial sector for recent graduate artists. The platform is unrestricted by a permanent gallery space, and thus inhabits a nomadic lifestyle; the gallery is soon to host a series of pop-up exhibitions in different locations across the UK. Studio Chapple gives collectors a chance to purchase works by the next generation of contemporary artists, before they are out of reach.
As well as working independently with London dealers such as Nick Holmes, Louis has conducted work as an advisor at several international events, including the 2019 edition of Art X Lagos and this year’s edition of 1-54 Marrakech.
In 2019, Louis founded the online gallery Studio Chapple. Working exclusively with emerging graduate artists based in the UK, Studio Chapple seeks to dismantle an ever-growing exclusivity associated with the art world by fostering close relationships between artists and collectors, and acts as a stepping stone into the commercial sector for recent graduate artists. The platform is unrestricted by a permanent gallery space, and thus inhabits a nomadic lifestyle; the gallery is soon to host a series of pop-up exhibitions in different locations across the UK. Studio Chapple gives collectors a chance to purchase works by the next generation of contemporary artists, before they are out of reach.
SEE MORE... |
See more about Pippa El-Kadhi Brown's practice in the Shortlist 2020 Uncovered videos on The Art Prize's YouTube channel. Stay tuned to learn more about Pippa's exhibition Around You, Within You, or Nowhere at All also coming to The Art Prize's YouTube channel soon! |