Run

‘Run’ site-specific painting installation and solo exhibition at Matt’s Gallery, London. 2018. Using digital reproduction of painting into wallpaper alongside cut-out and painted wooden panels. Dimensions variable.

‘Run’ explores the relationship between painter and performer and the experience of viewing. Examining identities and activities that extend notions of form and its context by evoking a narrative through the process of making. The handmade and digital are also explored in the photographic reproduction of the painted surface and its material presence alongside painted panels and cut-out freestanding motifs. For this exhibition, Bruton’s paintings have been transformed into wallpaper, which respond directly to the dimensions of Matt’s Gallery 3x3x3m space. Hand-painted then digitally produced and pasted to the walls of the gallery. Within this context, the physical boundaries of the painting are mobile and reconfigurable which create an awkward and uncertain experience for the subject to occupy and navigate.

Bruton won the Lorne Trust Scholarship Award in 2016, which funded a sabbatical year and dedicated research time where she examined references from the Victoria and Albert Museum Archive of wallpaper and pattern books, which also recorded histories of use and locations. This experience and subsequent exhibition has seen a significant shift in her practice and production of new material. ‘Run’ continues an investigation into the performativity of making and viewing painting within a site-specific context. “Walk slowly towards the light” was the first major commission by Matt’s Gallery to develop her painting within the context of installation. It was funded by the AHRB, and explored the reciprocal gaze and the showgirl as motif and mediator between the surface of the work and the act of looking. This led to other AHRB funded research and investigations into performance and theatre. Capitaine Can-Can, a site-specific painting installation used the chorus line and architecture of the De La Warr Pavilion to create an encounter between the subject and viewer. In response to Bruton’s research, Author Michele Roberts wrote a series of short stories of the inner thoughts of the performer as another view and experience of the work. Capitaine Can-Can was also shown as a solo exhibition at Sadlers Wells, London. Capitaine Can-Can is also cited in Francesco Rapazzini’s Book Le Moulin Rouge en Folies, Quand le cabaret le plus celebre du monde inspire les artistes 2016.

• https://www.mattsgallery.org/artists/bru...