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Oct 8-18, 2003
Under Your Skin collective: Sonia Cabrera, Ilinca Cantacuzino, Robyn Castle, Rose Cecil, Daniella Clayton, Catia Colaiacouo, Giles Drayton, Louise Hill, Sofia Jonsson, Lucy Large, Naomi Schillinger, Carolyn Watts
| multimedia | space 1,2,3

When eight artists got together to exhibit their work in a show entitled Under Your Skin last year in a Hackney gallery, they had little idea how successful the venture would be. In contrast to so many exhibitions that open and close without leaving a ripple, they aimed to show work that actively engaged the viewer, stimulating thought and response, and provoking a reaction.

The work was also driven by its placing: once installed, the pieces responded to each other, creating a tense, dramatic show that really did get under the skin of visitors. Naomi Schillinger’s comic flying sanitary towels, Ilinca Cantacuzino’s beautiful burnt paintings, Lucy Large’s ominous miniature furniture installations and Carolyn Watt’s aged textile sheets, neatly placed as if unwrapped from a mummy, were some of the refreshingly jarring artworks from Under Your Skin.

The success of this project led to the formation of the Under Your Skin artist group and their new project, Home. Expanded to twelve artists, for this show, Under Your Skin will present new work at the Century Gallery, not far from the site of their first group show. Once again they aim to produce work both contemplative and subversive that will linger and amuse.

Home, the bedrock of our civilization and ultimate sanctuary, will be explored by multimedia artwork that examines its political, social, private and banal realities. As before, the unifying theme will produce an exhibition whose individual pieces exist as autonomous works whilst merging into a collective dialogue with each other. Lucy Large’s unnerving miniatures will be echoed by Giles Drayton’s ornamental bonsai tree house; and home as the repository of comfort and memory will be explored in Sonia Cabrera’s evocative prints and Catia Colaiacouo’s colourful sculptures fashioned from plastic utensils.

The overall effect will surprise and delight the viewer.