NATASHA MACVOY
  • CURRENT
  • WORKS
  • DEATH CLUB
  • HER MIT PROJECTS
  • ABOUT
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In the studio at the moment includes (from left to right); I AM DYING text hand painted onto the wall with Valspar Deep Space Echo paint; ceramic hoops on wooden dowels; charcoal drawing on the back wall made with charcoal taped to 2m lengths of dowel; ceramic stirrups held on the wall with dowels; plaster sculpture of a pair of legs using the artist's fingers as substitutes; and ceramic stirrups suspended by fabric in the foreground. (January 2021)
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Detail: Ceramic pieces with fabric
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Detail: legs substituted by the artist's fingers, plaster mounted on wooden dowel with the end painted orange
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Image shows the artist holding a glass orb received as a Christmas present, which reveals the text I AM DYING painted on the studio wall. The text is referred to in a piece for Your Phone is my Gallery, a one-on-one experience where I read a piece of writing to a listener over the phone. The series began in lockdown 2020, is ongoing, and can be arranged by replying to the RSVP form on the CURRENT page of this site.

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Image shows ceramic hoop held on the wall by wooden dowels
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When lockdown began I returned to working from home and began making small sculptures using materials I could find around the house. The hoops were made by twisting newspaper, fixing them with PVA glue and coating them in ink. Shown here with a narcissus flower from the garden, which has been left to dry in place over the coming years. (May) 2020

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Image painted onto the walls of a studio I sublet, household paint and rubber matting

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SHAME, 2019, Lights from around the gallery (working and not), wood and packing tape, 750 x 350 cm approx

SHAME, 2019, details, Lights from around the gallery (working and not), wood and packing tape, 750 x 350 cm approx
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SHAME, UNITe Residency Exhibition, Installation image from opening night, g39, Cardiff, 2019

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Rein it in, UNITe Residency Exhibtion, Group Show, Opening night, g39, Cardiff, 2019
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Rein it in, 2019, Household paint on the gallery walls. Working from the ground, I drew using paintbrushes taped to the end of the gallery's broom, within the range of my stretch and reach. 350 x 900 cm
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Rein it in, detail, household paint on the gallery walls, g39, Cardiff, 2019
Grappling for language, A collection of photographs used as slides during performance artist talk, UNITe Residency, g39, Cardiff, 2019

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Groping in the dark, detail, Solo Show, Test Space, Spike Island, Bristol, 2019
Image shows hand painted polyester nets held in place with wood cut and finished as extensions to the skirting, resin casts of body parts filled with Himalayan salt, wooden dowels painted white and acrylic rods cut and shaped to form U's.

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Groping in the dark, detail, 2019
The resin casts of my rump, knee and elbow picked up the details of my skin on the surface whilst the salt made the pieces equally seductive and replusive. The salt referred to the blind, pioneering climber Erik Weihenmayer and his use of The Brainport, a device that allows the wearer to see using their tongue.

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Groping in the dark, Installation view, Materials include wood, paper, polyester netting, fabric paint, resin, Himalayan salt, acrylic, dimensions variable, 2019
Groping in the dark took the line of sight around the site - a corridor where the walls define a non-space, access point, both inside and outside the studio.

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Groping in the dark, detail, 2019
Image shows the net with my cross-legged seat repeated, hand painted using fabric paint, and hung as architectural flats from extensions of the corridor's skirtings. From a distance the nets appeared solid and bright but pixilated and softened when approached. Neon yellow referred to the tennis coaching I performed when my children were small, as I originally sourced the netting to create teaching aids. Resting on protruding wooden dowels, all the U's aligned themselves to provide colons and full stops - places to pause, caught between holding on and letting go.

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Groping in the dark, detail, 2019
Image shows the exhibition text, a stream of consciousness, displayed on plywood, also available to take away. Printed on 300gsm paper and trimmed so the image bled to the edges. The text was woven into a performance talk presented alongside the show that used personal family footage interspersed with research, images and a script.The performance was both independent of, and informed by, the show. Each becoming a prop for the other.


  • CURRENT
  • WORKS
  • DEATH CLUB
  • HER MIT PROJECTS
  • ABOUT