Jamie Andrews: Fish Out of Water Exhibition
The Fairhurst Gallery presents an exhibition of unseen before works by Jamie Andrews. Fish Out of Water is centred around the artists Transition Doll sculptures; a collection of pieces as the product of decades of work, documenting a lifetime of events. Underpinned by the theme of catharsis, the exhibit highlights ideas surrounding introspection and psychological explanations of behaviour and personality, explored through making. The artworks serve as visual diaries, cataloging self reflection and discovery of thoughts and feelings in conjunction to poignant happenings; through the lens of Freudian ideas of our unconscious, focussing on the Id Ego and Superego.
The Id is the innocent yet impulsive facet of our personality; the childlike spirit that drives the desire for pleasure. Its contrast is the Superego, which acts as the strict moral compass, driven by fear of wrongdoing. The Ego then sits between the two, it is the mediator between the opposing wants of the naive Id and the uncompromising Superego. Fish Out of Water delves into how these separate parts of the personality act out and inform our responses to events and relationships, with Jamie Andrews personifying them as such.
The image of the fish appears throughout the show, a representation of the Id; the playful, curious boy Jamie grew up as. The exhibition is the journey of the fish, being taken out of water into alien surroundings, lost to the Superego during the tests of life and rediscovered through playful and cathartic art practice. Encrusted with toys and charms, the Transition Doll sculptures, inspired by the psychological idea of ‘transitional objects’; pieces which instil a level of comfort during the self discovery of the individual, soothing anxiety driven from separation and detachment, are just that. Caricatures of people, moments, events and reactions that allow for a transition to take place; moving on towards individual growth.
Along side the Transition Doll sculptures is a collection of two dimensional works, providing a personal insight and narrative to the story of each of the dolls; what they relate to and how they came to life, whilst relating to key aspects from the accompanying biographical catalogue; ‘ J : A Fish Out of Water ’.
4th June – 9th July 2022 | Tuesday – Saturday, 9:30 – 17:30