The Back of an Envelope Exhibition

​Online show with Edgeland Modern and Bluemonkeynet

May – June 2022

Inspired by the Margaret Mellis show reusing found materials at the Towner gallery, the Blue Monkey Network in conjunction with @edgelandmodern initiated an exhibition involving used envelopes for an Instagram show.  This idea is based on the common belief that most significant design ideas are first given form on the back of an envelope.  

My artworks in the show originated from two pen and ink drawings, inspired by the remains of the WWII tank barriers down at Cuckmere Haven, in East Sussex. (above)

 In each artwork, I re-used an envelope as a stencil with cut-out windows, to make new selections from the parts of the original drawing I found interesting.  This technique of using a cut-out frame to make a new composition from a selection is one I use a lot in my art practice to create a more fragmented composition. The "Please do not bend" envelope and "Recycle" use the back of the envelope with cut-outs to zoom in on small parts of the original landscape to be given focus.

Recycle-Envelope #1

Recycle

This uses the back of the envelope with eight cut-outs to zoom in on small parts of the original landscape to be given focus. There is also the obvious pun on the fact that the envelope reminds the user to politely, “recycle”, which ineffect, is what I am doing with the image!

Please do not bend - Envelope #2

Please do not bend

This envelope is used as a stencil with eight cut-outs to reveal only the individual tank barriers from the original drawing. I first started this work on the day Russia sadly invaded the Ukraine, so the polite request on the envelope, “Please do not bend” seemed to give the tank barriers an added poignancy.