Peer Sessions No 96 @ Chisenhale Gallery

Blake Hart-Wilson // Melina Doumy

7-9pm Thurs 6th October 2022

Chisenhale Gallery, London E3
chisenhale.org.uk

Notes

During LA-based artist Nikita Gale’s solo exhibition IN A DREAM YOU CLIMB THE STAIRS at Chisenhale Gallery (9 July 2022 - 16 October 2022), Peer Sessions facilitated a Chisenhale Crit open to the public with guest artist and Chisenhale alumna Imran Perretta, discussing the work of two artists with the assembled group. 

Blake Hart-Wilson showed an excerpt from his film Alien (Alien) 2022, an HD Digital Video. The participants identified a watery, or psychedelic special effect that had been added over the film, and the conversation revolved around how this affected the experience of watching the film. Some felt it abstracted the visuals, causing a sense of dissonance, others mentioned a heightened awareness of the dialogue and a sense that it emphasised the sci-fi (or dramatic) tension of the iconic original.

Melina Doumy showed 3 pastel drawings, from a much larger series. They were titled Pieta, Sore ribs and cloven hooves and When the blood burst from the grape. The discussion initially focussed on the materiality of the work, identifying intense gestures of the pastels, described as frenzied, animated and frenetic. This lead to various interpretations, including that they were atmospheric landscapes or bodily dismemberments. The group felt the images were emotional, intimate and dreamlike and there was a sense that they encompassed some kind of fragmented memories or interpretation of the sublime.