Dagmara Rudkin

There are ongoing links in my work between a female body, nature, animals , mythology, folklore and domestic spaces occupied by women and where stories are told. This is one of my relatively recent pieces: Pegasus. The stripped lampshade cover made me think of a caparison and when I added a wing, it just became a flying horse. With the one-breasted corset-like armature of a deconstructed lampshade it can also be seen as an Amazonian warrior. Or maybe it is a winged female Centaur?

I am delighted to participate in this vibrant and eclectic exhibition set up by Cultivate Art Gallery. 37 painters, mixed media and 3D artists showing nearly 200 pieces of art.

Cultivate presents Saturation – An on-line art exhibition… | THE ORGAN (organthing.com)

Another wonderful creation from Wendy Pye and Maria Jastrzebska with music by Peter Copley and read by Rita Suszek and supported with funds of ACE. With my drawings of crows and doves. Here is an interview with Wendy on making of this and other videopoems and here is a short interview with me about how I approached the character of the Crow in the Snow Q Project.

I am delighted and honoured to have my work feature in the film poem Lullaby. Created by Wendy Pye, with words by Maria Jastrzebska and music by Peter Copley. Read By Rita Suszek.

The film co-incides with poet Maria Jastrzebska and Mark Hewitt’s new Snow Q Live literature performances.

Details of performances and ticket details:
https://snowqproject.wordpress.com/snow-q-live-lit-event-2…/

Throughout December the Phoenix Art Space Window Gallery is displaying our responses to haikus. Here is mine: a three-part installation made out of lampshades that represent transitions between seasons and transitions in women’s body. There are many other responses created by Phoenix-based artist in the exhibition which will continue till the 5th of January 2020.

This series started with Gerda Chandelier made for the Snow Q Project last year. This time , the upcycled lampshade was turned into a free-standing rather than suspended installation. It makes me think of reclining Mayan sculptures or work by Henry Moore. Or a decorative piece of furniture. Some parts are like a spine and veins, some like tattooed skin. Or a decorative upholstery. The bulging curvy form that looks like breast and pregnant belly bump and vulva, is made out of a bra and has strong visual links to fertility sculptures. The bottom part of the lampshade is cut into and tassels unfurl to look like ovaries. I wonder whether this particular piece was subconsciously produced as a result of risk reducing surgeries I had as a BRCA carrier.

I have been working with them for a while. Their flimsy little bodies and their ubiquity make them pathetic and vulnerable but also slightly predatorial. Some make me think of winter crows. Some of dead seagulls found on a beach. Some of plucked chickens ready for the Sunday Roast. Made with laddered tights and found, rejected materials: packaging, bags, bits found on a beach.

Please come to see my latest mixed media drawings and sculptures created in response to seasons, folktales and mythology. I will also exhibit textile sculpture produced for the Arts Council funded Snow Q project. The exhibition will be open every day and will finish on 23rd of June. Please click here to see a short feature in June’s edition of Artist of the Month.

Please come and join me at my studio (3S6) at the Phoenix Brighton. I will be showing my paintings, new mixed media drawings as well as textile sculpture produced for the Snow Q Project.

https://www.phoenixbrighton.org/events/open-studios-2019/