The Woolff Gallery is delighted to present Susila Bailey-Bond’s long awaited solo show ‘Wonderland’. The exhibition will open at the Woolff Gallery on 3rd October 2013. ‘Wonderland’ is a vivid and bright new body of work which is intended to offer a short moment of escapism in this otherwise hectic world.
Bailey-Bond’s work emerges between design, sculptural collage, and mixed media canvasses of bold, graphic art which is obscured by the insertion of thousands of tiny clear tubes, it is clear that Susila’s fashion background has informed her practice as a visual artist through the relationship with the flat image and its subsequent translation into three dimensions.
In the papercut works we are presented with a celebration of colour and pattern as decorative repeated forms of butterflies and spots swarm and drip in all directions - forms which have most famously become iconic for artists such as Damien Hirst, indicating a sense of transience and joy. Other motifs are borrowed from nature and icons such as flowers, leaves, and dragonflies all collide and culminate in nests of activity evoking a breezy summers day. Alternatively inspiration has been drawn from aeroplanes or even tattoo’s as artworks created using the same technique offer a bolder, three-dimensional graphic feel.
Through her unique process of making, Bailey-Bond employs both technology and handcrafting to create elaborately detailed artwork that is unapologetically joyful. In the remarkable mixed-media tubes series there is an unmistakable kitsch to the bright colours. Here artificial landscapes and scenes are presented - their graphic boldness only revealed when one observes the artwork face-on. When viewing these artworks from other angles a delicate subtlety and softness is apparent, tempting and encouraging us to look closer and drawing us in, toward the piece.
Bailey-Bond’s artwork has been widely exhibited at major art fairs in London, Miami, Chicago, New York and Toronto as well as in Europe. She has been represented by the Woolff Gallery since 2008. Her work can be found in private collections internationally. Clients include Tiffany & Co, and Davidoff.