HATCHED 2016

Art Exhibition part of Oxford International Women Festival and to celebrate  International Women’s Day 2016

In response to this year's OIWF's theme 10 artists living and working in Oxford present HATCHED 2016, an art exhibition at Freud, Oxford.

Using painting, drawing, photography, narrative, installation, sculpture and performance they engage with Challenge, Austerity, Creativity and Transgression in diverse and exciting ways.

Veronica Cordoba de la Rosa

Viviane Fallah

Dympna Irwin

Hattie Rutter

Jess Shaw

Maga Esberg

Natasha Solomons

Nia Walling

Nimmi Naidoo

Sonia Dobajova

Nimmi Naidoo is a site-responsive artist. Her piece 'Transgressions ' was developed specifically for the festival as a response to standing in a space that retains the resonance of the sacred and yet now is secular.

Natasha Stella Solomons; Central to my work is an engagement with elements in the natural world.  Using a camera over time, narratives emerge. The final work may be photographic image, performance and/or installation. In this exhibition I am interested in issues raised by the medieval story of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell: What does it mean for a woman to be labeled hag or beautiful? Can a woman embrace the ambiguity of both these aspects of her femininity without being judged? What does it mean for a woman to have Sovereignty today?

Harriet Rutter explores the notion of child exploitation using photographic still life as a medium. Her colour series alludes to recent events that have impacted her sense of social responsibility as a woman and as a mother.  

Vivianne Fallah's is showing a drawing ' The Gathering'. Women are life force, brought together we create immense energy and vibration. We celebrate international women's week with that connection all around the world. The pine cone is a representation of nature and our purpose in nature; it is also a Fibonacci equation. Repetition may be part of our daily existence, but it also keeps order. 'We are matriarchal'.

Nia Walling's work centers on domestic or childhood space and forms, to explore female identity and experience. Her medium is installation, she combines textiles, text, light and found objects. The artist is currently creating work in response to the 1001 Critical Days cross party manifesto, which highlights the importance of wellbeing of both mother and child from conception to age two. Which will be exhibited at the Tomorrows Child Exhibition held at the Houses of Parliament in June 2016.

Sonia Dobajova’s work reflects on her personal concerns on the global effects plastic pollution has on the environment. Her work captures the dialogue between the scientific and the emotional. The Fluid Infusion Project celebrates the human body in the spirit of Memento Mori. It maps the biological and anatomical structural changes which are happening in our bodies as a result of this pollutant.

Maga Esberg presents image and text work. Using interviews as a starting point she is building a web of stories about the women close to her to highlight common experience and shared history. Maga is a lens-based artist currently working on several site specific projects, Wytham Woods and the Shore Studio. For the past 12 months  she has been blogging news stories, articles and photos from around the world to raise awareness and promote women issues. 

Dympna Irwin presents new large format painting work made in response to the International Women's Day. The picture denotes the struggles of women and the unification of men and women as feminists that have joined forces to create gender justice and dismantle patriarchal oppression.

Jess Shaw is showing work from an installation/ sculpture piece 'The Whale and her friend the seal set out..'. A series of objects that hint toward a narrative. 

Veronica Cordova de la Rosa is a visual artist, publisher and researcher. Her recent work explores the strands of value/valuing, beauty, the legibility of the image, looking and not looking, symbolic objects and actions ...