firstsite contemporary art colchester

Amanda Ansell, No-man's Land

22 March – 22 April 2006
Amanda Ansell
Artist Space

Suffolk-based painter Amanda Ansell uses firstsite’s Artist Space to develop a new body of work.

Ansell returns home to the region after living and working in London; in her Suffolk studio she paints magical canvases that capture another world. Inspired by the oriental and bathing, her unnerving paintings evoke a dreamlike journey into imagined places.

Ansell intends to use the Artist Space to reassess her paintings from the last two and a half years and create a new series inspired by these investigations.

Created after time spent by the artist in the bath, Ansell’s paintings depict interior scenes inhabited by foam shapes and lone trees. These curious juxtapositions are the result of collages and photographs that become painted subjects.

The artist says: “the elemental experience of bathing, a principal site of relaxing and thinking, has been used to create a feeling of individual isolation.” The paintings become representations of escape, contemplation and a slowed down pace of life.

In her new series, Ansell intends to move away from the bathroom and to abstracted seascapes as the background for foam islands as a way to further investigate journeys in and on water as a metaphor for the voyage of life, “indicative of the dangers, uncertainties and finite nature of its course.”

Visitors to firstsite are invited into the Artist Space to interact with the artist as she works, rather like the way Ansell encourages us to enter her painted world and loose ourselves.

The Artist Space is a firstsite innovation. A room devoted to artists to use as their own studio, interacting with visitors and firstsite staff.

	Amanda Ansell, No-man's Land 22 March – 22 April 2006 Amanda Ansell Artist Space Suffolk-based painter Amanda Ansell uses firstsite’s Artist Space to develop a new body of work. Ansell returns home to the region after living and working in London; in her Suffolk studio she paints magical canvases that capture another world. Inspired by the oriental and bathing, her unnerving paintings evoke a dreamlike journey into imagined places. Ansell intends to use the Artist Space to reassess her paintings from the last two and a half years and create a new series inspired by these investigations. Created after time spent by the artist in the bath, Ansell’s paintings depict interior scenes inhabited by foam shapes and lone trees. These curious juxtapositions are the result of collages and photographs that become painted subjects. The artist says: “the elemental experience of bathing, a principal site of relaxing and thinking, has been used to create a feeling of individual isolation.” The paintings become representations of escape, contemplation and a slowed down pace of life. In her new series, Ansell intends to move away from the bathroom and to abstracted seascapes as the background for foam islands as a way to further investigate journeys in and on water as a metaphor for the voyage of life, “indicative of the dangers, uncertainties and finite nature of its course.” Visitors to firstsite are invited into the Artist Space to interact with the artist as she works, rather like the way Ansell encourages us to enter her painted world and loose ourselves. The Artist Space is a firstsite innovation. A room devoted to artists to use as their own studio, interacting with visitors and firstsite staff.