Ailish Henderson - Maker: Mended,
Maker: Mended – the comma denotes direct significance. Ailish recognises the ongoing requirement for mending – this is no full stop repair job. Observe the connections between who we are as humans as artists, and how the connection of creating with one’s hands can formulate a strain of emotional repair for the maker. Maker: Mended, – the comma here denotes micro-defined significance to Ailish’s practice. She has recognised the ongoing requirement for mending – this is no full stop repair job.
Featuring new works, with familial ideography, such as her collective ‘The Very Heartbeat of You’, which celebrates the timeline of her mother’s life and how it connects to her own, as well as her large, humanised sculptures, the ‘I am…’ positive-negative affirmation trio, which have never before been seen outside London. In line with this, further works hint to this year being the ‘Centuria’ year of her dearest possession – her grandmother’s life, and a celebration of their ongoing relationship. ‘The Rewrite Collection’ is Ailish’s most personal to date, whilst it alludes to historical trauma, it has been mindfully censored and developed in a subtle, light manner, allowing for audience approach and inclusion – what would we wish to go back and do differently personally? Finally, ‘She Kept the Plates Spinning’ body of works harks back to Ailish’s love of the art of Japan, namely the principles surrounding Kintsugi, both visually and thematically.
Walk through this subtly toned room, its shushed nature giving you room for your own ponderings. The artwork described is set to make you smile, not darken with any negative connotations. This is positivity, artistry pushing into the future with embracement. Yet it goes deeper, designed to make observers question your own timeline, your lifelines, what your own repair job may be… in the words of Louise Bourgeois: ‘art as restoration’ – our most vital mending job might just be ourselves… through the act of making.