Welcome to ‘All of the things none of the time’ the inaugural exhibition at Curiously, a new art space in Berwick-upon-Tweed founded by artist Mills Rowe.
This show delves into themes of grief, memory, and empowerment through the works of seven diverse artists.
From ceramic sculptures to textile installations, each piece serves as a testament to the human capacity for resilience, introspection and growth.
These are the intangible threads of connection that bind us all.
Angela Crosti
You Are Everything To Me, 2022 - ongoing
Angela Crosti is an Italian documentary photographer, printmaker, and writer, currently based in London.
Exploring the intricate intersections of home, motherhood, identity and belonging, Angela approaches her projects with a lyrical eye and a profound commitment to social and environmental perspective.
“In my work, I invite viewers to hear all those mothers who are silently struggling to cope, mostly unseen by their family, communities and institutions. Mothers who find it difficult to ask for help, either out of shame or for fear of their own sentiments.”
‘You Are Everything to Me’ offers an alternative and uncomfortable perspective on the experience of motherhood. The work invites contemplation of women who become imprisoned in their maternal life, weighed down by the negation of their own well-being, their desires and their identity.
See more from Angela Crosti here
Unfinished Breakfast
Mantis
Losing Hair
Lions and Butterfly
Caitriona Dunnett
Hill Close Gardens
Caitriona Dunnett is an Irish artist based in the UK. Her practice explores memory and the traces people leave behind, the paths they weave through time and the legacies attached to them. specifically look at land and nature, through alternative photographic processes.
Experimenting is central to Dunnett’s work, as is finding the appropriate technique to convey her stories, mostly working with the cyanotype, a process blue in colour, which she tones with natural tannins.
Hill Close Gardens captures the timelessness of one of the last groups of detached Victorian pleasure gardens in the UK. The gardens date back to 1845 and were tended by tradesmen. They fell into disrepair and were saved from development by local residents.
Dunnett installed lumen prints in progress in five of the gardens’ historic summerhouses over the summer. A camera-less photographic technique that records the interaction between plants, surface and light. She picked a selection of plants from the garden and the placed the plants directly on top of photographic paper, they were secured and exposed in pre-owned frames of different shapes and sizes.
See more of Caitriona Dunnett’s work on her website.
Carli Adby-Notley
MOT-TER A Porous Construction
My work is largely underpinned by feminist concepts and more recently focuses on the medicalisation and subsequent control of female health, menopause and ageing; particularly when associated with our bodies being regarded for the most part, as only the maternal.
The work shown here is part of a broader project titled ‘MOT-TER: a porous construction’ which uses a variety of mixed media including sculpture, audio, fabric prints, archived material, written journals and the printed photograph to in a project grounded in the autobiographical.
This series was a two year engagement of portraits with my mother, exploring deep rooted behaviours and generational gestures of motherhood.
I wanted to begin to question the narratives of ‘woman’ and how that is so closely linked with that of the mother figure and, how the construction of one’s self is made up of our personal experiences and the performance of our lives as we navigate the obligations of our surroundings, political and historical interpretations of the naked body and our ancestors.
The uncomfortable line of familiarity between mother and daughter antagonises the unspoken distance, examines the coexisting familiarity and nuances, challenging the internal and external understanding of the ‘me’ and where the individual begins and ends.
Thus as women or biological owners of wombs; can we really ever fully claim our identity as our own?
See more of Carli Adby-Notley’s work on her website here
Kayleigh Peters
Defective Goddesses & The Hidden Collection
Kayleigh Peters prioritises form over function in her practice, forging a deep connection to life through clay. She creates abstract ceramic vessels as symbolic extensions of the body, embodying simplicity through introspective creation.
These vessels serve as quiet activism, sparking conversations about hidden illnesses derived from Peters’ own experiences. She advocates for increased visibility and medical research, contracting imperfections to reveal hidden beauty.
Employing contrasting colours, Peters delves into the internal battles of those with hidden illnesses. Her process integrates historical narratives, prompting reflection on societal constructs of secrecy and power dynamics.
In an era of underfunded healthcare and gender biases, Peter’ work raises questions about disparities and the path to healthcare equality.
See more of Kayleigh Peter’s work on her website here
Mills Rowe
Lost Names
Rowe’s latest body of work delves into the obscured narratives of female ancestry and the legacy of surname adoption. She is currently exploring how this practice has erased women’s identities, perpetuating name loss across generations.
Through personal reflection and meticulous research, Rowe traces the threads of her own female ancestors’ identities, urging viewers to contemplate the significance of names as vessels of identity and markers of lineage.
Lost Names uncovers the hidden stories of women in our family history. For centuries, when women got married, they took their husband's last name. Before that, they were often known just as 'wife of.' This tradition still happens today, with most women taking their husband's name.
In my art, I explore this tradition by looking at the names of my female ancestors. I found out that my nan, Olive Grove, became Olive Jackson when she married. This meant the end of the Grove name in our family.
The impact of this tradition goes beyond just losing a name. It affects how we remember our family history. My art asks people to think about how names are important for identity and family history.
I want to honour the women in my family and start a conversation about why this tradition continues and what it means for equality and history.
Lost Names II is a tribute to the women in our family history who've quietly influenced our lives but are often forgotten. Inspired by my great-grandmother, whose memory I barely grasp, this project explores our ancestry to give voice to these overlooked women.
I dug into genealogy websites to piece together my great- grandmother's life, blending my faint memories with facts I found. From simple recollections like a cherished plum tree to concrete details of her life events, each bit of information helped me paint a picture of her existence.
With no photos to guide me, I used artificial intelligence to imagine how she and her life could have looked. Each image I created represented a different aspect of her life, trying to capture who she was despite the passage of time.
Lost Names II asks viewers to think about the women who paved the way for us. It's a tribute to their strength and dignity, reminding us of their presence in our family trees. Through this project, I honour not only my great-grandmother but all the forgotten women whose stories deserve to be remembered.
Nastassja Nefjodov
Why Being Quiet Is So Loud
Nastassja Nefjodov is a German Russian visual artist based in Amsterdam.
She believes that sharing vulnerable stories is an act of healing. Both healing oneself and a contribution to the healing of others, breaking the circle of pain and violence.
After the sudden, traumatic loss of her partner, who was one of the main protagonists of her work, Nefjodov turned the focus on her own immediate experience. Rather than telling stories, she immersed herself in expressing and exploring her own pain.
“Not being the observer of other people’s stories and their impact on me, but being in the midst of my own story and trauma and using art to cope and heal”
The drawings and polaroids are recent explorations on loss and grief. Observing herself in the mirror and in front of the camera, she is becoming friends with grief, approaching it with humour and playfulness in order to get to know it better and giving it a place where it can feel more comfortable and stop being overwhelming.
See more of Nastassja Nefjodov’s work on her website.
Petra Kroon
I was diagnosed on 12th January 2023, at the age of 57, as being on the spectrum, as it is officially called. In other words, I am autistic.
It turned my whole world upside down. I had to rediscover who I am. I dived into my archive of baby photos and the stories my had written to accompany them. Of photos from when I was older and from now. Of memories. Or diaries. Searching for clues, in every photo in every detail, in every pixel.
My story and that of many other neurodivergent women in yet another example of medical misogyny. I think it is important to tell those stories, to draw attention to how the medical profession still sees women as little white men. And what the negative consequences of that are.
Petra Kroon in an Amsterdam based photographer. In her practice she focuses on medical misogyny. Her stories are about female mental and physical health, fertility, sexual identity and agency. She questions the male dominancy in a personal and political way.
See more of Petra Kroon’s work on her website here