A friend who stayed with us recently has given me a catalogue of Alice Maher’s exhibition ‘Natural Artifice’ on show in Brighton. Gavin always chooses such perfect presents. I was aware of Alice Maher’s earlier work using cast off hair, dead honey bees, red berries and nettles and pins. For me such work displays a tenacity in the collecting, sorting and handling of such materials. Materials that stain, mark and harm the skin as pointed out in the catalogue notes.
In recent work the artist appears in a photograph wearing a necklace of lambs’ hearts. In another piece snail trails are ‘fixed’ on fired ceramic plates. Startling pieces. I was completely knocked out by her charcoal drawings. Thick, dense, immaculate. Not a trace of a smudge anywhere around the crisp black outlines. It’s lovely when you are given a present like this that opens up previous memories, obsessions (not snails!)
Alice Maher (2006) 'The Lovers' charcoal on paper 152.5x102cm
