'Body of Work'

In this exhibition Ann Roberts explores the obese human form and its movement through charcoal studies using the collotypes of Eadweard Muybridge as a point of reference.  

The starting point of the artist’s current body of work began with her interest in what lies beneath the skin and while on this track of exploration and while looking at the work of Francis Bacon she came across Eadweard Muybridge’s little known series of the "gargantuan woman".  

The exhibition consists of a body of charcoal drawings on Fabriano Paper and a work (based on the principle of a mutoscope or a flipbook) animating the main subject of the exhibition into a “moving image”. The inclusion of this last element was so as to explore the subject from all angles, almost like having a live model in a studio.  

In the selected presentation Ann plays with the weight of her subject’s bulk, her isolation and the vast distance between her concerns and those perpetuated by modern media. 

'I think the isolation and lack of context is vital to evoking an emotional and tactile response to the nature of her form and flesh with artifice and distraction.'

The focus on and relationship with the subject has developed from a morbid curiosity to a considerable fondness for her volume and a deep sympathy for her condition. There is a kind of beauty in the choice of an obese naked subject, the empathy and pathos the studies evoke makes make them intriguing. 

22 November - 20 January