Don't be far from me

Don’t be far from me is an exhibition by Glasgow-based artist Sue Tompkins and NYC-based artist and designer Matthew Damhave, linked to a month-long residency.

Sue Tompkins’ work is closely absorbed with language. She sifts through fragments of speech and song lyrics illuminating small moments to become intimate and beautifully composed works on paper. Sue works meticulously, perhaps like an editor; accumulating, repeating and reworking text, paying careful attention to layering and arrangement. Her works are often animated and extended into movement by performance, where this relationship to language is danced, sung, celebrated.

Matthew Damhave’s paintings, zines and textile works incorporate text drawn from pop culture, music and film. He works through processes of bricolage; repairing and piecing together garments from found materials, and hand-making collages and zines. Employing a pointillist approach, his paintings are precise renderings of found imagery and text.

The exhibition brings together new works that consider the bookshop as a site, including a performance by Sue Tompkins taking place outside in Cecil Court. An artist's book will be in production during the exhibition.

Don’t be far from me celebrates the connections these artists make between objects, people and place, and as the title suggests, keeps them close.

Don't be far from me is curated by Caroline Stevenson with Tenderbooks. The exhibition is supported by the London College of Fashion and Arts Council England.

• https://tenderbooks.co.uk/blogs/events-w...