The Dark Ages at Supplement

Artists: Josephine Callaghan, Angelique Heidler, Joseph Long, Kate Mackeson

Exhibition title: The Dark Ages

Venue: Supplement, London, UK

Date: April 20 – May 20, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Supplement, London

Supplement are pleased to present a group exhibition, ‘The Dark Ages’, at the gallery’s temporary space in East London.

The Dark Ages is the period between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages following the decline of the Roman Empire. It is generally thought of as marked by the deterioration of urban life and named for the dearth of information about that time. It was a confusing and often contradictory time in which society attempted to restructure itself.

Josephine Callaghan presents black clay ceramic busts named after volcanic islands. Callaghan takes a classical form and voiding it of familiar associations, the white busts become dark figurines, somehow solemn and ominous, peaceful and almost grotesque.

Angelique Heidler’s paintings play with forms, codes and conventions from popular culture, advertising and the Internet. Employing various techniques such as digital printing, screen-printing, sublimation printing, oil, acrylic, spray painting, collage and ceramics, her paintings are reflections upon her sources that are critical, cynical and at times ironic. Subject matter and aesthetics collide through compositions to form work that appropriates visual tropes to turn them onto themselves.

Joseph Long’s botanical paintings evolve through an investigation into the history and documentation of flowering plants. Often working from drawings and photographs taken on walks or from online communities of botany enthusiasts, his paintings attempt to reconsider our relationship with the natural world and the evolving, constantly shifting cultural significance thereof.

Kate Mackeson’s practice incorporates sculpture, installation and textile. At the gallery she has installed two works hanging from floor to ceiling using webbing. In one such installation a padded painted textile is intertwined in the webbing, in the second there are candles in the shape of toothbrushes, make-up pads and cotton buds. Her works allude to the contemporary body and its care, through the tension between familiar materials and the unspecific forms of knots, loops and padded fabric.

The exhibition brings together various practices and investigations to make sense of our lives in the darkness and dense gloom of our time, to shed light upon our contemporary condition, so that we may continue to grow.

The Dark Ages, 2017, installation view, Supplement, London

Joseph Long, Davidia, 2017, Oil, acrylic and canvas on aluminium, 36 x 26cm

Joseph Long, Delphinium, 2017, Oil, acrylic and canvas on aluminium, 50 x 35 cm

Joseph Long, Digitalis Purpurea L, 2017, Oil, acrylic and canvas on aluminium, 35 x 24cm

Kate Mackeson, Occupational Hygiene III, 2017, Webbing, fixings, candle, makeup pad, cotton bud, Dimensions variable

Josephine Callaghan, Untitled (Timanfaya), 2017, Ceramic, 13 x 20 x 12cm; Stampalia, 2017, Ceramic, 24 x 8 x 11cm; Sphinx (Timanfaya), 2017, Ceramic, 17 x 20 x 10cm; Einashe (Timanfaya), 2017, Ceramic, 14.5 x 9 x 10cm; Untitled (Timanfaya), 2017, Ceramic, 18.5 x 9 x 15cm

Kate Mackeson, Idssulution, 2017, Webbing, fixings, oil and acrylic on fabric, wadding, Dimensions variable

Angelique Heidler, Des Cases pour Classer les Sorts, Jouer aux Échecs et Emprisonner les Sacrifiés, 2017, Acrylic, oil, spray paint, collage and cloth on canvas, 81 x 65cm

Angelique Heidler, Quécho, 2017, Acrylic, oil, screen print, collage and cloth on canvas, 81 x 65cm

Josephine Callaghan, Untitled (Timanfaya), 2017, Ceramic, 11.5 x 8.5 x 9cm

Angelique Heidler, Allégorie de La Retraite, 2017, Flyer, drawing pins, fabric, business card, acrylic, oil, spray paint and ceramics on wood, whiteboard and cork panel, 50cm x 70cm

Angelique Heidler, Allégorie de L’Envie, 2017, Digital print collage, acrylic, oil, ink on paper, silicone, push pins, ceramics on wood, whiteboard and cork panel, 50cm x 70cm

Angelique Heidler, Allégorie de L’Enfer, 2017, Digital print collage, fabric, acrylic, oil, spray paint and ceramics on wood, whiteboard and cork panel, 50cm x 70cm