joseph scissorhands: Rebecca Manson: Leave Love Behind

Sunday 31 March 2024

Rebecca Manson: Leave Love Behind

Rebecca Manson - Silverfish Wing, 2024

Having only come across Rebecca Manson's work online just weeks ago, and hearing that she was to have a show in London imminently, it was with much excitement and a sense of anticipation that I visited this exhibition. Part of Manson's ouevre involves creating butterfly and moth wings on a vastly enlarged scale. These things are huge. Seen and appreciated in the real they are magnificent. The wings are large ceramic wall sculptures consisting of thousands of tiny pieces of coloured ceramic which the artist refers to as "smushes". Manson and her team of assistants then mould and apply by hand, creating wonderful textures much like the actual tiny scales found on the real wings of butterflies and moths. Although the pieces are reportedly laboriously 'tedious' to create given their complexity, the team acknowledge that the process can be a rewardingly meditative one. An observation and sentiment that I can completely sympathise with in the cutting and placement of all of my butterflies individually by hand. All of the bisque-fired clay "smushes" need to be glazed. "Then, they are all tediously glazed. They often serve as tiny little test tiles, allowing us to explore infinite glaze interactions and application results. Some are dunked by the handful, then loaded into the kiln one by one. Others are sprayed, hand painted, etc. Variety is the name of the game when it comes to developing a rich palette. And the ability to work in cycles—each cycle is a response to the prior" as Manson describes her process. The wings hang from the gallery walls like disembodied specimens waiting to be spread and pinned by a collector. They are beautifully decorative, exercises in pattern and colour writ large. Certain pieces resemble cloaks or pieces of clothing and one could easily see them adapted as such, much the same way designers such as Alexander McQueen have adapted butterflies as the central motif in their collections (here) and (here). Another aspect of Manson's work are her pieces in stained glass. These again are inspired by nature in the form of elegantly crumpled, colourful leaf sculptures which appear to have fallen from their respective trees and blown into the gallery. They are intensely coloured jewel-like stained glass pieces resembling those amazing lamps created by Louis Comfort Tiffany. It was a real pleasure and inspiration to experience the work of another artist who is both stimulated and motivated by the butterfly/moth motif.

Speiredonia Wing